Web Fic
Chapter 149
Jason glanced down at her, with a hint of a question in his eyes.
Estrella, on the verge of saying something, finally just smiled reassuringly, “It’ll happen
when it’s meant to be.”
With a noncommittal grunt, Jason bent down and kissed her cheek. As he moved to kiss her lips, Estrella pushed him away, “You reek of booze. Go shower first, and I’ll make you
some tea.”
“Damn, can’t even get a kiss now,” Jason grumbled playfully, pinching her cheek before taking the clothes she had pressed into his arms and heading to the bathroom.
Watching Jason’s retreating figure, Estrella couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Soon after, when Jason emerged from the bathroom, Estrella had brewed the tea and even prepared a fruit platter for him, playing the part of the doting wife for a change.
Jason wrapped his arms around her. As he was about to kiss her, Estrella blocked him, “Eat something first to line your stomach.”
Jason eyed her suspiciously. Estrella picked up a slice of fruit with a smirk, “If you don’t fill up, I doubt you’ll have the stamina later.”
Jason was momentarily speechless-wasn’t she always the one begging for mercy?
Estrella fed him fruit, and after a few bites, Jason’s kisses became more urgent, though not as fierce, betraying the weight on his mind. With her arms around his neck, Estrella whispered, “Still not over it?
Should I go out and pick up a kid for us right now?”
That made Jason laugh, “Would any kid be the same as one you’d give birth to?” With that, he playfully tumbled her onto the bed.
Estrella braced herself against his shoulders, “Easy tiger, remember my stomach.”
Jason laughed again, “I can’t reach that far.”
Estrella burst into laughter, “Jason, you’re even naughtier than I am!
Their fingers interlocked. Then, Jason leaned down to kiss her deeply. He gotta work hard to get Estrella pregnant.
After their lovemaking, Estrella was left exhausted on the bed, and Jason easily pulled her into his arms. Half-awake, she muttered into his neck, “We’ll have a child someday eventually, just be good to me.”
Jason nuzzled her gently, affirming with a soft hm,’ though it wasn’t clear exactly what he was agreeing to.
Over the weekend, Estrella made a trip to the office and took some time to rest at home.
10:41
Come Monday, Lexi’s trial resumed.
Entering the courtroom alongside Zoey, Estrella saw Nick standing cocky and smug, his hands in his pockets as if the case was already won. His arrogance inflamed Zoey’s eyes to red, while Jeffery and Haley in the audience regretted ever misjudging such a man and agreeing to the marriage.
As both parties returned to their seats, the judge and jury arrived, and the judge announced the continuation of the trial, turning to Estrella to ask, “Does the plaintiff have any new evidence relating to the charges of intentional harm and murder?”
Rising confidently, Estrella replied, “Your Honor, regarding the case of Mr. Lexi’s fall and her injuries, we have new evidence and insist on charging the defendant, Mr. Nick, with
intentional harm and murder.”
“Let’s review some images and videos of the defendant to establish his motive for the alleged murder,” Estrella continued, picking up a remote and casting images of Nick and Piper together onto the projection screen.
“As you can see, the defendant Nick met the lady in the photos, Piper, at an upscale gym in town this April. Piper, 34, is a divorced entrepreneur with two successful clothing businesses, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores, and is quite well-known.”
“Piper is financially stable. In the seven months since meeting Nick, she has transferred him a total of $260,000, not counting cash, and even bought him a luxury Mercedes SUV.”
As Estrella’s investigation turned to Piper, Nick’s face paled, his neck veins bulging. He stood up abruptly, pointing at Estrella, “What the hell kind of evidence is this? Piper and I are just friends. This is an invasion of privacy!” NôvelDrama.Org owns this text.
“Calm down, will you?” Estrella retorted coolly.
The judge, unimpressed by Nick’s outburst and profanity in court, brought down his gavel, “Defendant, please control your emotions. And the plaintiff’s attorney, please continue with the evidence pertinent to this case.”
After the judge’s prompt, Nick sat down, seething but silent.
Estrella resumed with poise, “Your Honor, this is just the beginning of the evidence chain.”
“Proceed with your evidence,” the judge instructed.
With a glance at Nick, Estrella continued the presentation, “The defendant claims he and Ms. Piper are merely friends, yet we have found several instances of them checking into hotels together over these seven months.”
“Their longest recorded encounter was nine hours. I’ll leave the nature of their interactions to your imagination, but from the photos of their daily interactions, it’s clear they were more than just friends- they were lovers.
“Given this, we must question whether the defendant, Nick, wanted to end his marriage
10-$10.
with the victim, Lexi, to be with Piper, and upon being refused, chose murder as his exit
strategy.
“Or maybe the defendant didn’t want to tarnish his image in front of Ms. Piper, fearing to be seen as a gold-digger who dumped his wife for wealth. So, he chose to push the victim, Lexi, down the stairs, fabricating the excuse that it was a suicide. In doing so, he could still play the role of the devoted lover in front of Ms. Piper, trying to ingratiate himself and garner sympathy.
“Our team is now leaning more towards this second suspicion because, from the conversation captured on the video, we can hear that the defendant has been using the victim’s fall to gain sympathy and swindle money. He claimed to have been constantly by the victim’s bedside at the hospital, but according to our investigation, the defendant visited the victim only twice after her fall, with the total time amounting to less than thirty minutes. His visits to the victim were even shorter than the time he’d spend on a single
hotel room rendezvous.”
When Estrella reached this point, Lexi’s mother had already burst into tears in the audience seats, while the father trembled with anger.
This jerk had an affair. He could have simply filed for divorce if he wanted out of the marriage, but why did he have to kill their daughter? That was a human life.
As Estrella listed the preliminary evidence, the spectators in the gallery were seething with anger, each of them hurling insults at Nick, calling him an asshole, convinced that Lexi must have been pushed by him.