CH.32

The grainy security footage flickered to life on the massive screen in the hushed courtroom.

Serena felt her stomach drop through the floor like a lead weight as the all-too-familiar scene began to unfold in gruesome detail before her eyes.

"Enough!" Alex's voice exploded from the speakers, his tall, imposing figure moving quickly to pull Serena's slender frame away from another woman by violently gripping her around the waist. "Do you want to kill her, Serena? Is that what you want?"

"Let go of me, you sick bastard!" Her own anguished scream tore through the uneasy quiet like a knife as she struggled against Alex's restraining hold with feral desperation.

Serena's lithe body twisted and thrashed, but he was too strong. "I'm going to deal with that lying snake once and for all today!"

On the screen, Serena lifted her knee with vicious force, jamming it directly into Alex's groin.

He crumpled instantly with a grunt of agonized pain and his grip finally loosened enough for her to break free.

Her filmed self spun around like a crazed woman, running directly to the shining knife rack mounted on the wall and seizing one of the evil blades without hesitating.

A collective, horrified gasp rang out from the captivated audience as Serena launched herself at the other woman – Diana and began raining down vicious stab after vicious stab in a blind frenzy.

The courtroom reverberated with the horrible sounds of the sharpened blade plunging into flesh with relentless resolve, whilst Diana's silhouette fell gruesomely to the wooden floor in a rapidly spreading pool of blood.

"Diana!" Alex's voice cracked like a whip as he rushed towards the unmoving, bloodied form. He cradled her body in his arms and felt frantically for a pulse with shaking fingers.

His eyes shot up to Serena's stoic expression in disbelief. "What have you done?" he rasped in a gravelly tone thick with disbelief and horror. "You've killed her!"

The footage froze on that chilling image - a distraught Alex cradling Diana’s lifeless body while Serena looked on with her expression utterly devoid of emotion or remorse.

The courtroom was filled with an unsettling quiet like a dense, oppressive mist until -

"Monster!"

The guttural roar exploded from the crowd, shattering the tension like a clap of thunder.

A thunderous cascade of nasty cries and chants swept over Serena like a tidal wave breaking over her.

"Burn in hell, you psycho bitch!"

"Murderer!

“Beast!”

"Justice for Diana!"

“Kill her!”

Serena flinched. She was stunned by each angry shout, retreating into herself as the weight of their fury and loathing crushed down on her from every angle.

Tears burned in her eyes, blurring her vision into a stinging haze as the last shreds of hope and innocence slipped through her fingers like futile grains of sand in an hourglass.

Through the roaring in her ears and the dizzying vertigo clawing at her senses, Serena watched in numb horror as the scene shifted again on the screen.

This time it was Alex, approaching the stage with his well-defined features set into an expression of well-rehearsed grief and justified outrage.

It was the press conference - the one where he had so deftly and so cruelly destroyed her in the eyes of the public before she ever had a chance to defend herself.

Serena's stomach churned with nausea as she was forced to watch the entire performance through a blurred, tear-streaked gaze.

Every agonized claim of her mental instability and violent episodes...every well-timed pause to let his words sink in...every measured intake of breath to emphasize his "immense pain and anguish"...it all sliced through her like shards of sharp glass, burying themselves deeper and deeper with each passing second.

The sound of the tremendous rush of blood hammering in her ears overshadowed the jeering yells and shouts from the courtroom audience, making them seem like a distant roar.

Serena realized with a deep, sickening dread that this was it. Alex had well and truly destroyed her in the eyes of the baying public, painting her as a cold-blooded monster unfit to walk among civilized society.

She was ruined, a convicted criminal damned by the court of public opinion before she ever saw the inside of a jury room.

All thanks to the man she had once loved and trusted above all others - the man whose callous betrayal and soaring ambition knew no bounds and no lines too far to cross.

"Your Honor," Alex's smooth, self-assured voice rang out, somehow cutting through the chaos with ease. "I would like to call an additional witness to the stand who can provide further insight into the defendant's disturbing patterns of conduct and mental deterioration."

The judge gave a solemn nod. “Granted!"

A hush fell over the courtroom once more as the security guard led a young woman inside, the sharp click of her heels echoing against the polished floors. Her pale, porcelain features belied her fragile appearance, and her plain black outfit made her look far more vulnerable than Serena had known her to be.

The woman approached the witness stand with slow, wobbly feet, drawing the silent attention of everyone in the room with puffy eyes and a quivering lower lip. At last, she raised her eyes to meet Serena's, and the pained betrayal and grief in those scarlet-rimmed eyes was like a physical blow, taking Serena's breath away.

If the damning footage and Alex's testimony hadn't already dashed every last speck of hope from her battered spirit, the sight of this snake preparing to testify against her most certainly did.

A strangled sound caught in Serena's throat - part sob, part anguished cry of disbelief. She was well and truly alone now, with no allies remaining in her corner as the dominoes of Alex's grand deception continued to fall one by one.

She groped instinctively for Jenkins' comforting presence beside her as she trembled furiously. Beneath the table, his callused palm found hers and grasped it tightly, providing what little comfort he could.

Serena dug her nails into his skin so hard they drew blood, clinging to that one lifeline as if it were all that held her grounded.

She had never felt more alone, more lost in the darkness with nowhere to go, and this was her greatest nightmare come true. All she could do was hold on for the ride and pray to whatever higher power would listen that Jenkins had one last miracle up his sleeve to somehow save her.

Because at this point, it was blatantly clear that Alex wouldn't stop until he had utterly and completely destroyed her. No matter what it took, no matter who got caught in the crossfire, he would burn everything and everyone to the ground to get what he wanted.

And the truly terrifying thing? Serena realized with a cold sense of clarity that she still had no idea what that endgame was, or how far this man she had once loved was willing to go to achieve it.

All she knew was that he was willing to sacrifice anyone and anything, demolish every shred of their past to become the biggest piece on the board.