Chapter 14 - The Prosecutor’s Choice
Reeves grabbed Vanessa and pressed the gun against her neck.
She screamed.
The man who had protected her for years was now using her as a shield.
“Open the doors!” he shouted.
Arthur rose from the defense table.
Reeves pointed the gun at him.
“You should have stayed dead.”
That single sentence destroyed the prosecution’s case.
He knew about the warehouse.
He knew Arthur had survived.
Federal agents moved closer.
Reeves dragged Vanessa toward the side exit.
Margaret watched without emotion.
“Shoot him,” she ordered.
Reeves hesitated.
Vanessa turned her head.
“You said you loved me.”
The courtroom fell silent.
Another secret surfaced.
Vanessa and Reeves had been lovers for years.
He had erased evidence after Evelyn’s crash.
He had secured Vanessa’s release.
He had helped fake the DNA report.
But he had never known Margaret intended to sacrifice them both.
Vanessa finally understood.
She drove her heel into Reeves’s foot and dropped to the floor.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Agents tackled him.
Margaret was arrested.
Vanessa remained on the floor, shaking.
She looked toward Bella.
“I’m sorry.”
Bella did not answer.
Some people in the courtroom believed Vanessa deserved sympathy.
Others believed no amount of cooperation could erase what she had done.
The debate spread across the country.
Was Vanessa a victim of Margaret’s control?
Or had she chosen cruelty because it benefited her?
The jury never had to decide Arthur’s case.
All charges against him were dismissed.
But outside the courthouse, Arthur faced the cameras.
“I signed documents I failed to read,” he said. “I ignored warnings because profit made them convenient to ignore.”
His lawyers tried to stop him.
He continued.
“I may not be legally guilty of murder. But leadership without attention has consequences.”
Then he announced he was resigning as CEO.
Margaret screamed from the police transport van.
Without the company, the Sterling name meant nothing.
Arthur looked toward Bella.
May you like
“That’s the point.”
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