Chapter 6 - The Last Threat
The courtroom was packed.
Victor looked smaller without his expensive office and armed employees.
He still wore a perfect suit.
Still sat straight.
Still tried to look powerful.
Then he saw me.
His expression changed.
I walked past him without stopping.
During my testimony, Victor's attorney tried to make me doubt myself.
“You were exhausted after childbirth?”
“Yes.”
“You had received medication?”
“Yes.”
“Your memory may therefore be unreliable.”
“No.”
He paused.
“You're certain?”
“I remember my husband looking at our newborn daughters and calling them a curse.”
Victor shifted.
“I remember begging for blankets.”
The room became completely silent.
“I remember being thrown onto freezing pavement.”
I looked directly at Victor.
“And I remember wrapping myself around Lily and Rose because I believed the only way they would survive until morning was if I froze before they did.”
Nobody moved.
The attorney looked down.
“No further questions.”
---
Victor confronted me after the hearing.
He shouldn't have been able to get close.
But in the crowded corridor, he found a moment.
“Ava.”
I turned.
He stood ten feet away.
“It's over, Victor.”
“You destroyed everything.”
“No.”
I remembered Elias saying those exact words about men who blamed others for their choices.
“You did.”
Victor stepped closer.
“You think Vance cares about you?”
I said nothing.
“You're entertainment to him.”
“Move away from her.”
Elias's voice came from behind me.
Victor laughed bitterly.
“There he is.”
Elias approached.
Victor looked between us.
“You think you're different from me?”
Elias's expression remained calm.
“Yes.”
“You're a criminal pretending to be a hero.”
“I never called myself a hero.”
Victor pointed toward me.
“You took my wife.”
Elias looked at me.
Then back at him.
“Nobody took Ava anywhere.”
Victor's face reddened.
“She belongs—”
“No.”
This time I interrupted.
“I belong to myself.”
Two officers approached.
Victor stepped back.
For once, he obeyed.
---
The final blow came three weeks later.
The driver testified.
Security footage corroborated the timeline.
Financial investigators confirmed the forged insurance documents.
Victor's former employees provided additional evidence.
His power disappeared remarkably quickly once people stopped fearing him.
When the proceedings finally ended, I walked outside carrying Lily.
Elias carried Rose.
Snow was falling.
Almost like that first night.
I stopped on the courthouse steps.
Elias noticed.
“You okay?”
I watched the snow collect on Rose's little pink hat.
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
“I used to hate snow.”
He understood.
“And now?”
I touched Lily's cheek.
“Now it's just snow.”
Elias smiled.
We walked toward the SUV.
Halfway there, I stopped him.
“Elias.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you really stop that night?”
“I told you. I saw someone beside the road.”
“Your convoy could have kept driving.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn't.”
He looked at the twins.
Then at me.
“My mother raised me alone.”
I waited.
“There were nights when she needed someone to stop.”
His voice became quieter.
“Nobody did.”
That explained more about Elias Vance than every rumor I'd ever heard.
“So you stopped for me.”
“No.”
He adjusted Rose carefully.
“I stopped because once in my life, I wanted somebody's story to end differently.”
I smiled.
“It did.”
He looked at me.
“No, Ava.”
His eyes moved toward Lily and Rose.
May you like
“It started differently.”
---
