Chapter 6 - The Arraignment Hearing
One month later.
Although I was still required to take things slow, Dr. Lin cleared me to attend the formal bail and arraignment hearing at the Federal District Court.
The courthouse was packed with reporters, camera crews, and citizens holding signs demanding justice for domestic abuse survivors.
I entered the courtroom through a private side entrance, flanked by Gabriel and four security guards. I wore an elegant dark cream maternity dress, my hair pulled back neatly, my belly noticeably larger now at seven months. My face was fully healed, radiant, and calm.
Across the room at the defense table sat the four members of the Mercer family.
They were dressed in orange county jail jumpsuits, their hands and feet shackled. Raul looked thirty years older, his arrogant posture completely broken. Helena was crying silently, her manicured hair disheveled and greasy. Nora sat staring at the floor, trembling.
And then there was Victor.
When Victor looked up and saw me walking toward the prosecution table—healthy, radiant, standing tall beside the powerful Gabriel Vance—his eyes widened in absolute shock and bitter desperation.
"Clara!" Victor shouted, standing up from his chair, his chains rattling loudly across the quiet courtroom. "Clara, please! Look at me! I’m sorry! I was wrong! Please talk to your brother! Tell him to drop the charges!"
The judge slammed her gavel down forcefully. "Order in the court! Defendant Mercer, sit down immediately or you will be held in contempt!"
"Clara, I love you!" Victor begged, tears streaming down his bruised face as two bailiffs forced him back into his chair. "Think about our baby! A child needs her father!"
I stopped walking. I turned around slowly and looked Victor dead in the eye.
There was no fear left in my heart. No doubt. No pain. Only cold, crystal-clear clarity.
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"My daughter will know who her father was, Victor," I said, my voice carrying smoothly across the silent courtroom. "She will know that he was a coward who hid behind a wooden cane... and that her mother was strong enough to put him in a cage."
The gallery erupted into hushed whispers and applause. Victor slumped forward in his chair, putting his head in his chained hands, weeping bitterly as he realized that no amount of begging would ever save him.
