The final judgement

After the visit I made to Christopher, I understood that I didn't need him to ask me for forgiveness to heal, that he was totally deranged, and that to heal all the pain he had felt, he only needed time to pass and take care of himself. put everything in its place.

The days passed and the day of Christopher's trial approached, I am putting on a beautiful suit, I am fixing my wig, my children were not going to attend, they should not witness all the aberrations that were going to be discussed in that trial, so I would go with Carlos, my faithful and unconditional companion.

“Are you ready for this? “He asks me while he takes my hand.

“I don't know, but it's something I can't deny, we need to go, they'll sentence him, they'll make us talk and a jury will say how much jail time he deserves”.

“Amanda, justice will be done” I look at him and I know he's right.”

The two of us went directly to the trial, although I was nervous, Carlos' support was more than enough, when I arrived, there were a lot of people waiting for one of the most controversial trials in those days, some of the press tried to interview me, but Carlos kept them away, in the middle of that crowd he was waiting to see the woman he had been looking for days ago, he wanted to find Lucia.

The trial was about to start, those of us who were going to testify against Christopher were ready, everyone began to murmur when he crossed the threshold of the courthouse atrium door, his look was cheeky and his countenance was calm, he acted like if nothing was happening.

“Order, order in the room please, we are about to start the sentencing trial against Mr. Christopher Hopkins for the charges that we will detail below...” the judge begins to speak, and the trial officially begins before the anxious gaze of all of us I was heartily sorry that Lucia was not there, she also deserved to be there, present for justice to be done.

The judge begins to speak and to say each one of the atrocities that my ex-husband had done, every time he mentioned a word I felt like my heart was pierced by a knife, listening to each of his actions, it was like reliving the pain again, and that tormented me, the time came for me to take the stand and testify against him, I had to tell everything that happened to me, repeat it one more time, as if I hadn't already said it thousands of times, and of course It hurt, remembering was living it, and it didn't only apply to the good things, it applied even more to the bad.

Giving my testimony made a few people who were present horrified and others more sensitized, there was a person among them who seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't recognize him.

I had to wait for the judge to give a break to go to her, I practically ran out because she was running away from me, I took her by the arm and turned her towards my face.

“Lucy? For heaven's sake, Lucia you're fine!” An instinct makes me hug her, she stares at me surprised, she takes off her dark glasses, her eyes were glazed, her face was depressing, it was obvious that she was not having a good time, also when I see her from top to bottom I realize that she was pregnant again, but what was wrong with this woman?

“Amanda, I'm glad to see you too, sorry if I'm dressed like that, but I don't want him to see me, I just came because I want to know his sentence, I'm living outside the city, on a small farm that my mother has.”

“Are you pregnant again?”

“Yes, when he appeared I was with him, well he abused me, and well, until recently I realized my condition, but this baby is not to blame, just like his brothers he will have a home”.

“Uff I understand how difficult all this must be for you, but I have news for you, I am going to transfer all of Christopher's money that they withheld from Panama, it is already in my possession”

“No Amanda, I don't want anything that comes from that man, the truth is, everything that comes from him is cursed, it is stained with blood, and I want that for my life”

“Of course, not Lucia, because it was the money that was honestly raised with the work of my father's company”

“But what about you? That money belongs more to you than to me” Lucia tells me distressed, she knew that legally she did not have many rights to be her lover, she believed that, but she was not like that.

“I have a lot of money, my father passed away making me his universal heir, plus my money, I feel that you for your children should participate in what he left, it is fair”.

Lucia remains silent thinking about it for a moment, she caresses her belly, and a tear falls down her cheek, she is inevitably broken, she gives me an arm and stays sobbing on my shoulder, I also hug her and try to comfort her, that Poor woman was the one who had suffered the most with all this.

“I just need your information to transfer your money right now, you can rest easy” Lucia smiles in the middle of crying, because the news has just changed her life, there were approximately ten million, with that she was enough to live in peace for a long time without working, or to start a big business, I don't know, now it was his money.

She takes out her phone and through a message sends me all her information, before going back into the trial I make the transfer, two minutes later we were back inside the courtroom, but now she was without costumes, she wanted to testify in against him, and since she was already summoned, she did not miss the opportunity to speak.

When Christopher saw her, sadness invaded his eyes, and he couldn't help but cry in front of everyone, that showed that maybe he did love her with his heart as he once said, when he lowered his gaze to her belly a little bulging, he could only pass his hand over his head and began to hit the table that was in front of him, and began to scream desperately

“Lucia, my love, please forgive me! Forgive me” the security guards had to reduce it, after she gave her testimony, the judge went on and on talking, but the atmosphere was tense, there was sadness, there was grief, and to think that none of this would have had to end like this, but Christopher's bad behavior was leading him to suffer the worst of sentences.

The time came to know his sentence, in this case Lucia had sat next to me, I was holding Carlos's hand, and the truth was I was happy because justice was being done, he deserved to pay for everything he had done, especially the death of Serena.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have deliberated with the jury and the sentence handed down against Mr. Christopher Hopkins, for the crimes of kidnapping, homicide, flight, obstruction of justice... The judge kept listing the number of crimes for which Christopher was to be condemned.”

“For this reason, we have decided to sentence him to 2 life sentences. Without the possibility that he could request some kind of benefit in the future, since his crimes have harmed several families, including his own family and without caring about the consequences of what it could cause”.

Many of the people in the room were happy and applauded the judge's decision, but next to me was Lucía crying, I wasn't sure if this was because she still loved him, or because it was simply too difficult. facing the fact that the love of her life was totally the opposite of what she hoped for from him one day.

Christopher, after hearing his sentence, stays looking at us, his sadness is evident, but that was really caused by Lucía, the anger is the relationship really was always between the two of them.

I take her by the arm and caress her, I would like to give her all the comfort she deserves, but really at that moment there was nothing that could appease her pain.

Christopher leaves our presence, and the room begins to become empty, finally we also leave there.

“Amanda, I want to thank you for everything you have done for me, even though I was Christopher's lover, you have been kind to me, what you did for my family, I will always thank you, truly.”

“ You have nothing to be thankful for, my Lucia, the money I just gave you and it is what corresponds to you for the maintenance of your children, your mistake was simply having fallen in love with that man, mom, it is time for us to start living our life from scratch, and that all the bad things that happened one day are simply in the past”

“Don't think it's easy for me, everything that happened has caused a great trauma and I couldn't recover, but I'm going to get away from everything, I'm not going to return to this city, with the money you gave me, I'm going to put a business that we are going to run together with my mother and Samantha, now we need a lot of money, there are already three small children and you can't even imagine the consumption” Lucia smiles sarcastically.

“I hope one day to talk to you again, it's unfortunate that you must leave the city, I would have liked you to have worked in the company with me, there would be a good salary for you. But the proposal will still stand for you, I know that you are an excellent economist, you would be innovative.”

“I'll take it into account, so if one day I need a job, the first person I'll look for will be you. Don't doubt that” Lucía smiles at me, she gives me her hand, she wasn't able to give me a hug, she leaves by her way, and I go by mine.”

The sentence that Christopher had received for having committed so many crimes had been exemplary, things were finally in place.