Chapter 14 - THE ULTIMATUM
"This is forged!" Julian shouted, his aristocratic composure shattering into hysterical desperation. "He paid someone to forge my sister's handwriting! My sister was insane! She lived in a cardboard box!"
Gideon slowly rose from his chair.
He did not wait for the judge’s permission. He walked around the defense table, his towering frame dominating the courtroom, until he stood mere feet from the frantic European hedge-fund manager.
"She lived in poverty because you hunted her like an animal," Gideon said, his voice dropping into a register so dangerously quiet that the entire gallery leaned forward to hear it.
"She scrubbed floors and went hungry so she could keep her daughter safe from a monster who cared more about a bank account than his own blood."
Gideon leaned forward, resting both hands on the plaintiff’s table, bringing his face inches from Julian’s sweating forehead.
"You thought because Elise died poor, she died weak," Gideon whispered flawlessly. "You forgot that a mother protecting her child is the most dangerous force on this earth. She left the weapon that destroys you right in my hands. And I am going to make sure you spend the rest of your miserable life in a concrete cell thinking about her."
"Bailiffs!" Judge Sterling roared, slamming his gavel so hard it nearly cracked the sounding board. "Take Mr. Thorne into immediate federal custody! I am denying this custody petition permanently, and I am issuing an international detainer against all of his assets!"
As the heavy steel handcuffs clicked shut around Julian Thorne’s wrists, the arrogant aristocrat broke down into pathetic, ragged sobs. He was dragged out of the courtroom, his bespoke coat dragging against the floor, exposed to the world not as a grieving uncle, but as a cowardly, murderous fraud.
May you like
Gideon didn't watch him leave.
He turned around and walked back to his daughter.
