CH.29

A disapproving tsk erupted from the crowd, but Serena just shrugged nonchalantly.

"Diana felt no remorse whatsoever when they realized I had discovered their betrayal. Not a shred. In fact, she openly mocked me and hurled vicious, nasty remarks at me, which quickly escalated into an explosive confrontation between us."

Her slender fingers unconsciously drifted to the bruise marring her porcelain cheek as she vividly recalled the searing sting of Diana's mom’s acrylic nails raking her flesh a while back.

"It was a brief physical altercation, nothing more. Yes, there was shoving and scratching, but Diana was most certainly still alive and relatively unharmed when I left Alex's apartment in a blind fury. I swear this to you on everything I hold sacred."

Her voice caught with raw emotion as she pressed on. "The news of her death mere hours later was as devastating to me as it was shocking. I had absolutely no hand whatsoever in harming her, despite her utterly despicable actions." She addressed the judge pleadingly, her crystalline eyes shimmering with unshed tears of anguish. "You have to believe me, Your Honor."

Serena took a steadying moment to gather herself, drawing in a ragged breath before raising her chin to meet the scrutinizing stares directed at her from every corner of the courtroom. "If you require further proof of my innocence, I can provide an extremely credible witness. My personal driver, John, brought me directly to Alex's residence that fateful evening and can attest that when I returned to the vehicle shortly after our...confrontation, there was no trace of blood nor any other indication whatsoever that I had committed such a heinous act as murder. Furthermore, if Alex truly did witness this alleged 'crime scene' while I was attacking Diana as he claims, why did he not intervene or attempt to stop me?"

From the defendant's table, Jenkins kept a careful, studious eye trained on Serena as she recounted her version of events, scrutinizing her every tiniest expression.

He flashed her a gentle, reassuring smile as a silent signal of encouragement when her voice faltered and her words became barely audible over the deafening pounding of her own pulse.

Serena inhaled a fortifying breath, willing her voice to remain steady. "Your Honor, I understand the gravity of the accusations leveled against me. Believe me, I do. But I can assure you, with every fiber of my being, that I am utterly innocent of this charge. I may have acted rashly in the heat of the moment upon discovering my loved ones' unforgivable betrayal, but I did not and simply could not take Diana's life, no matter how tempting that thought may have been in my anguished state."

The judge's expression remained utterly impassive, not even the faintest muscle twitching in his countenance as he regarded Serena inscrutably. "Ms. Bolting, while your driver's testimony may indeed corroborate your claim about the lack of physical evidence on your person, it does not definitively prove your innocence of this crime. What other potential motive would you have had for wanting Miss Delaney dead?" he posed his next question dispassionately.

Serena's eyes flashed with a roiling mix of hurt, anger, humiliation, and undisguised disbelief. "None whatsoever, Your Honor. Despite the unforgivable magnitude of their betrayal, I harbor no murderous intentions or malice towards either of them in the depths of my heart."

She paused, visibly steeling herself for the painful admission to come. "The truth is...I loved them both, in my own deeply flawed way. Alex was..." Her melodious voice caught in her throat, and she swallowed hard against the burning lump of anguish. "He was the love of my life, as trite and cliché as that may sound. And Diana...she was my dearest, most treasured friend in this world. Their deceit cut me more deeply than any blade, yet I cannot find it within the core of my being to truly wish them dead, no matter how tempting that thought may have been in the throes of my anguish."

The rawness of her heartbroken anguish seemed to reverberate through the courtroom, rendering the atmosphere utterly stifling with its palpable intensity.

Jenkins' jaw tightened imperceptibly as he witnessed Serena's emotional turmoil, but he maintained his composure, once again flashing her an encouraging smile and giving an almost imperceptible nod to silently urge her to continue.

"All I wanted in that moment was an explanation...just a chance to try and understand how they could so callously disregard and defile the sacred bonds of love and friendship we had all once shared," Serena said. "But fate, it seems, had other plans and robbed me of that opportunity with Diana."

Her expression hardened like carved marble. "However, I absolutely refuse to allow her memory to be forever tarnished by these vile falsehoods. I did not kill her, Your Honor. I could never, no matter how tempting that thought may have been in those first blinding moments of heartbreak and rage."

Her shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly, and she raised a trembling hand to anxiously rake her fingers through her tousled two-toned tresses. "I know precisely how this entire sordid situation must appear from the outside looking in. I understand how easy it is to jump to the most salacious of conclusions. But I’m not some crazed, cold-blooded killer." She shook her head vehemently.

Serena felt as though she couldn't keep in all of her emotions any longer and needed to express them in some way, whether through tears or by voicing her truth.

The courtroom had descended into an utterly oppressive silence as Serena's impassioned words seemed to hang heavy in the air like a suffocating miasma. Even the industrious scratching of the court reporter's pen had stilled, as if the entire world were holding its collective breath in rapt anticipation.

The judge's expression remained utterly inscrutable, his eyes giving no hint of the thoughts churning behind that impenetrable visage as he silently studied Serena for what felt like an eternity. "I understand that the circumstances surrounding this incident were...highly emotionally charged, Ms. Bolting. Volatile and chaotic even, by your own admission. But the prosecution will likely argue that in the blinding heat of your anger, your humiliation, your heartbreak...you momentarily lost control of your actions. That a crime of passion, however regrettable or understandable, is still a crime in the eyes of the law."

Serena's delicate hands clenched the arms of the rigid wooden chair until her knuckles turned white as bone. "With all due respect, Your Honor, that's simply not an accurate representation of what transpired here. I admit, I was utterly devastated, furious, humiliated - you name the emotion, I experienced it in its most intense depths that night. But I absolutely did not kill Diana," she said. "I loved her, dam…” She bit back the cuss word that was about to leave her mouth and took a deep breath.

“I loved her like the sister I never had. I could never, not even in my darkest moments, take her life in such a way."

Her voice cracked like a whip, thick with the weight of her anguish, and she swallowed hard against the burning lump in her throat before continuing in a slightly stronger tone. "If you'll allow it, Your Honor, I would like to call my driver, John, to the witness stand. Let him corroborate my version of the events that unfolded that night. John is a good, honest and honorable man - he'll shoot straight with you and this court, I stake my life on it."