"Your Honour," Marcus began, his voice hoarse, "I… I accept the charges. But I must state, the pressure… the pressure from Ms. Dione to find extreme solutions was immense. She needed to secure the Nexus Gateway project, to keep Dione Infra afloat. She was relentless in demanding results, no matter the cost."
A ripple went through the courtroom. Clara's face, already pale, drained further. Her lawyers shifted uncomfortably.
"Ms. Dione, she… she explicitly tasked me with finding alternative funding streams and methods to secure government contracts quickly," Marcus continued, his voice gaining a desperate edge, like a man drowning and clawing at anything for air. "She said Vance Corp was standing in our way. She pushed me to contact… external partners, people who could get things done. She
