Chapter 148: Change of Fate

Before he could even finish his sentence, Isabella's mother immediately stood up, crying and begging the judge, “Please just adjourn this case. My daughter can't go through injustice. I'm begging you. She only underwent that operation just to regain her memory because of what Lily did to her. If Lily hadn't poisoned her, she wouldn't have lost her memory in the first place, not to talk of being in that coma right now.”

She was crying and pleading with the judge to just adjourn the case. The judge felt pity for her, but his hands were tied. He couldn't do anything about it. He didn't want Isabella to go through injustice, but there was nothing he could do about it. Someone of higher power was backing Lily, which was her father.

“If I make any mistake right here in court today, I might lose my career. Losing my career is even too small; I might also lose my life in the process, which I didn't want to do,” he thought to himself as he immediately rushed into his office, leaving the courts.

He didn't want to take that risk. So he just ignored Isabella's mother and said, “I'm sorry, but this is not how court procedures work. If you can’t present Isabella before court in the next five minutes, I'm giving you just five minutes. If you can't present Isabella, then I'm going to dismiss this case, and Lily will be found not guilty, and she'll be released right away.”

He said to Isabella's mom, “I'm only giving you this chance because you are a mom, and the way you are crying and pleading before me is affecting me. I also have kids, so I understand your pain. I'm giving you five minutes to bring Isabella before court,” he said.

But there was nothing Isabella's mom, James, nor Alex could do. They all knew that Isabella couldn't possibly come out of a coma in the next five minutes unless a miracle happened, which all of them didn't believe existed.

So they just looked down at their hands in surrender and didn't say anything. Five minutes passed away slowly, and Isabella still didn't appear in court. So the judge gave his judgment. “I'm dismissing this case right now, and Lily will be released right away. The shackles on her hands should be removed with immediate effect,” he said as he immediately stood up and walked out of the court without even listening to anyone again, as he felt that he had done one injustice in his life and he couldn't face the victims' people anymore.

As Isabella's mother kept on shouting and pleading with him to not judge the case like this, she didn't want her daughter to go through that much injustice. She kept on pleading and crying, but the judge wouldn't buy any of it. He had already walked out, and he couldn't even wait to hear Isabella's mother's plea anymore because he knew that it might affect and cloud his judgment even more.

And he didn't want to lose his job nor his life because of this mere case. He thought to himself as he immediately rushed into his office, leaving the court.

Meanwhile, as the judge rushed out into his office, James came forward and immediately held Isabella's mother as she was already breaking down. He immediately went to her to comfort her, holding her by the shoulders so she wouldn’t also fall to the ground as he helped her sit on a chair.

“Don’t. Please stop crying, Ma. Isabella is going to be fine. Nothing will happen to her. Let's go together. We have to confront our judge. I think someone pressured him and threatened him into giving that type of judgment,” James said to Isabella's mother as she looked at James, shocked. She immediately stood up and followed James to find the judge.

As they arrived at the judge's office, James told Isabella's mother to sit outside for a bit so she wouldn’t break down hearing what the judge had to say. He then went in alone. He found the judge sitting in his chair with his palm covering his face, looking like someone who was in deep thought and displeased about what he had just done.

James didn't immediately confront him. “Why did you give an unjust judgment like that? Why would you do that to poor people? Did you even see Isabella's mom's face? Did you see how she was crying? She came here wanting to regain justice for her daughter, but this is what you give her in return. You are giving an unjustified judgment because someone is trying to threaten you. Why did you do that? Tell me who made you do all these things. Who made you give that kind of judgment? I'm sure somebody must have threatened you to make you give that kind of judgment.”

“Right from the beginning of this case, you have always been concerned about Isabella, and you promised that you were going to give her the justice that she deserves, but now you are already going back on your words. Tell me what happened. What went wrong?” James shouted at the judge as the judge just looked at him, distressed.

“Please, just stop it. Don’t ask who made me do all of this. I don’t want to lose my job, nor do I want to lose my life. And I don’t want anybody to be involved in any of this. Please, just go away. I’m sorry,” the judge pleaded.

“For what? Please, I’m begging you. Just leave here right now. I don’t want anybody finding out what happened or that I gave any of these judgments under pressure. Please, I don’t want to lose my job. I have a family that I’m feeding,” he continued, pleading with James.

James came to understand that the judge was really under pressure. “I just need to know who made you do all this. I need to know who put you under this pressure,” he said to the judge.

“Okay, but you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone if I tell you who pressured me,” the judge said to James.