Chapter 15
The trial began in winter.
Dominic entered the courtroom in a navy suit, clean-shaven and smiling.
Like a man attending a business meeting.
Not a man accused of kidnapping, fraud, assault, and conspiracy.
When he saw me, his smile sharpened.
I looked away.
Not from fear.
From refusal.
He no longer deserved my eyes.
Rocco testified first.
He told the jury about the night he was struck by a car.
About waking in a hospital under another name.
About years of rehabilitation.
About returning in disguise because he wanted to know if the club still had a soul.
Then he looked at me.
“I found one.”
Dominic’s lawyer objected.
The judge sustained it.
But the jury had heard.
Alina testified next.
Her voice shook.
Her hands trembled.
But she did not break.
She described the hotel room.
The locked door.
The lies about Rocco.
The day they took Serena from her arms.
Serena cried silently in the gallery.
I sat beside her.
She gripped my hand until my fingers hurt.
Then it was my turn.
Dominic’s lawyer tried to make me look greedy.
“You accepted employment from Mr. Rocco Vale, correct?”
“Yes.”
“After helping him?”
“After calling the police.”
“And you expect this jury to believe you had no motive?”
I looked at Dominic.
Then at the jury.
“My motive was seven coins and a man being shoved out like garbage.”
May you like
The courtroom went quiet.
I added, “If that sounds small to you, maybe you have never been treated like garbage.”
