Chapter 242 ONE MONSTER FOR ANOTHER.
AURORA'S POINT OF VIEW.
For a second, she stayed silent. Levi turned to us, his confidence wavering a little bit, and Armando looked on in victory.
Before I could lament, Morgan let out a dry sound… it was a laugh… no, a cackle. She finally shifted her gaze, but it wasn't to Armando. She looked at the jury, her eyes wide and unnervingly bright, or rather, sane.
"Armando is anything but a bystander,” she said, her voice echoing. "He is the director. My mother was just an accomplice. They planned everything; poisoning Everleigh, keeping her under the toxins in the hospital, even though the plan was killing her and her daughter off at first. When they realized her death would mean no more money for them, they decided to keep her in a coma instead.
Aurora begged dad to pay the medical bills, but he didn’t bat an eyelid. He treated two of them like they weren’t humans. He also made sure I was an accomplice in it. I was the one who purchased the poisons; they figured it would be hard to convict me since I was a minor at the time.
Armando only plans to fool this court into the belief that he is the innocent one; meanwhile, he is the one who planned all of this in the first place. Releasing him would mean releasing a monster back into his playground to get revenge on everyone else.
He killed my mother and many other people in his quest. That man is evil.”
The courtroom was so quiet you could hear the scratch of the court reporter's steno machine.
"What about the plan to steal Vistaline air?" Levi pushed, stepping closer. "Did he authorize the forgery of documents in that regard?"
"He didn't just authorize it," Morgan whispered, leaning into the microphone. For the first time, she turned her head. She looked at Armando. The hatred in her eyes was so potent it felt like a physical heat. "He filed the document himself, acting like Everleigh already died by spending her money, and commanding things in the office like it was his playground.”
Armando surged to his feet, his face purple with rage. "You lying, ungrateful…!"
"Sit down, Mr. De la Vista!" Judge Halloway thundered, but the dam had burst, and there was no way of saving the waterfall coming.
"I have the ledger here," Morgan continued, her voice rising over his shouts, fueled by a lifetime of being his second-best pawn. "I stole it on the night of the engagement before everything went downhill. It contains the video logs of the basement. It contains the wire transfers to the medical board. It’s all there. He thought I deleted the copy with me after I gave it to him…..I did, but because I knew where he kept the other copy, and the fact that he underestimated me.” She turns to Armando. “You killed my mother, Armando. You deserve the hell you’re headed into.”
She reached into the pocket of her oversized jumpsuit and pulled out a small, silver thumb drive, holding it up.
The defense lawyer looked like she was about to faint, while Armando collapsed back into his chair. The mask of pity was now completely gone, leaving only the hollow, terrified shell of a man who realized his own blood had finally bled him dry.
I felt Kai’s arm pull me flush against his side. "We won," he breathed into my ear, his voice thick with emotion. "Green, we actually won."
I watched as the bailiff took the drive from Morgan. She looked at me then, it was a long, cold stare that reminded me she wasn't a hero. She was a survivor who had traded a monster for a luxurious cell. But as she was led away, for the first time in months, I didn't feel like a victim.
I felt free.
That day, the judge walked in, and along with the jury, they both agreed on one thing: Armando was guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.