CHAPTER 111 — TRIGGERED.🦋 FELIX 🦋A few minutes after the news ended, Benita suddenly collapsed to the ground, and Nikita followed.I picked Benita up and rushed towards my car in panic, and Greg picked up Nikita, while Scott drove us to the nearest hospital.Nurses rushed towards us as soon as we were spotted, and Nikita and Benita were taken from us.I inhaled sharply and lowered my head, and Greg collapsed into the waiting chair. Just then, Scott rushed in.“Where are the ladies?” He asked. I ignored him, and Greg simply pointed in a direction.“I don't see anything,” Scott argued and was ignored again. “How can both of them collapse at the same time? Suspicious.”“What's suspicious about it?” Greg retorted. “Perhaps we are the ones lacking a heart.”“They are just the same thing,” Scott scoffed, shaking his head.After hours of waiting, nurses and doctors walked out of the ER, and we rushed towards them.“Are they dead?” Scott blurted out.“Scott!” Greg and I yelled at him, and
🦋 BENITA CELESTINE 🦋“Hidden Victims of Fred's bullying have raised their voices. The entire Fred family is said to be a psychopathic one. Mr. Fred himself is a dangerous person, as news of his mistress's death floods the media, not one or two, but each of the women he had an affair with all turn out dead at the end of their involvement together... About 50 women have been killed by him over the years. How the hell have all these been kept a secret from the world? No wonder he manages to give birth to two psychopathic twins; a fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.”My eyes were glued to the screen as the news with the headline, ‘Weeping victims who have lost their family to that family raised their voices’.Victim 1: My dad used to work there as a bodyguard. He was so strong, and although my mother left, he stayed to take care of me, until… he suddenly died, his organs were plucked out of his lifeless body when we found him. I thought he was taken by organ traffickers, but his organ
🦋 BENITA CELESTINE 🦋Why try to save someone and get killed for it? So sad.She was sent to join her family by the same family that killed her family."No! Grace!"I lunged forward, the scream tearing from my chest, but an iron grip locked around my shoulder and yanked me back. It was Felix, his face a grim mask of dirt and terror."Stop! You can't!" he muttered, his voice raw. “It's dangerous; the killers might still be around.”I fought him with a desperate, frantic strength I didn't know I possessed. My muscles screamed as I tried to rip free, my focus laser-locked on the still form just a few yards away. "Let me go! She's right there!" I pleaded, my voice breaking into a sob.A bulletproof car filled with Felix’s men parked in front of us, and everyone rushed in. Felix, scared we might be harmed again, lifted me from the ground and threw me into the car, before he jumped in himself.*** 🦋 ***Getting to our mansion, the report was already on the news, and we all stood to watch
🦋 BENITA CELESTINE 🦋We watched strictly as the judge sat up in the chair for the umpteenth time since we started the case, looked at me, the prosecutor, and the entire court. My hands were clasped so tightly in my lap that my knuckles were white. My lawyer placed a reassuring hand on my arm, which Felix was gawking at with an expressionless face from where he sat.The judge cleared his throat, the sound amplified in the heavy silence. "Will the defendants please rise?"Nikita and I pushed ourselves to our feet, our legs trembling beneath us."Ms. Benita Celestine," the Judge began, his voice deep and measured, "You have been charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Reyna Fred. The court has heard testimony from numerous witnesses and considered the arguments presented by both the prosecution and the defense."He paused, letting his gaze sweep across the room before settling once more on me. "The prosecutor has argued that your actions were coming from a poi
🦋 BENITA CELESTINE 🦋“What do you think about Benita's murder charges?” a reporter asked, stretching his microphone to a passerby.“No comment.” The passer-by responded and walked away, just like everyone else he tried to interview regarding my case.And the last person he asked, “What do you think about Benita's murder charges?” simply said… “I’m not thinking about it.”*** 🦋 ***Nikita and I sat on the defendant's side, a world away from the prosecutor's table and the looming presence of the judge. Here, the air felt different, not just thick with tension, but heavy with a crushing sense of responsibility.The anxiety was a physical weight. It settled in my stomach as a cold, churning knot and prickled my skin with a fine, persistent sweat. My mind, usually sharp and analytical, felt sluggish and clouded, like a computer trying to run too many programs at once.“Yes, prosecutor,” the judge voiced, stretching out his arm to give the prosecutor an opening.“I still stand on sentenc
🦋 BENITA CELESTINE 🦋Felix, Greg, Scott, Nikita, my lawyer, and I sat at a round table, each staring at each other with nothing in mind to do or say.“So where do we go from here?” I blurted out, breaking the silence.“We have lost the footing on this case; it would be hard to save you from being hanged,” my lawyer stated truthfully.“Are you saying we are going to get hanged… to death?”“Yes. You confessed to everything in court; there's no saving you.”“From the very beginning, you took the case the wrong way. There would be no case if you had come out plain; it was self-defense. But now, it's a cold, aggravated murder,” Scott voiced, slapping his forehead dramatically.“Is there really no way to spin this around?” I asked, frustrated.“No! They want a murderer; we have to give them one,” the lawyer explained. “We can easily say you only did what you did because of the pressure of having your friend hanged. You only wanted to save her.”“She's my sister!” Nikita argued.“Whatever…