Caught Between the Vengeful Billionaire Brothers

THESENTENCE

Aurora's POV

“All rise!”

The court clerk’s voice rumbled through the courtroom. Everyone acknowledged the presence of the judge, a stern-looking woman who seemed to be in her early sixties and always left the courtroom with another wrinkle added to her face after dealing with my case.

Three months had slipped through my fingers like a breeze, except it had been anything but gentle — more like a hailstorm of pain and regret.

I was charged with second-degree murder.

My lawyer, whom I had given all my savings to, promised he would be able to reframe it from something as heavy as murder to manslaughter on account of my intoxication.

One look into my lawyer’s eyes told me he did not believe I was innocent. Funny to think that even the person defending me didn’t have one modicum of hope in my words. He was doing it purely for the pay — nothing more.

The prosecution came at me hard, but the worst part of it all was seeing Ethan and Sofia still relaxed, enjoying whatever sort of twisted play they had concocted together — forgetting that this was my reality and my life on the line.

“Miss Yates,” being called by that name still sent a shiver down my spine. I might have been disowned by word alone, but Mr. Yates never officially filed the documents. In the eyes of the law — and the public — I was still his daughter, albeit adopted.

That made the case even worse, turning me into a suspect of p*******e.

“Did you love Mr. Yates, the man who raised you as his own?”

She was baiting me. I was sure my lawyer could have objected, but he didn’t even budge an inch, so I answered.

My lawyer had told me to be quick and straight to the point.

“Yes, I did.”

She smiled like a hunter watching a helpless bunny hop right into a trap.

“It must have been extremely difficult for you when he sent you abroad to make room for his biological daughter.”

The statement pricked me like a needle. The biological daughter in question was now pressed against my fiancé, both of them finding comfort while stealing moments to snicker at me when no one else was looking.

“I’ll admit it was difficult, but I eventually grew to—”

“I’m sure a lot of resentment must have built up over the years, didn’t it?”

I looked at my lawyer, who more or less shrugged at me.

I decided to brave the question.

“There was no resentment.”

“Then why was it only a week earlier that you attempted a hit-and-run with the true heiress? Almost like you wanted her out of the way before you were ‘officially’ supposed to arrive in the country—”

“Objection!” My lawyer finally spoke up, like I had paid him to.

That line of questioning was struck out, but the prosecutor didn’t want to quit.

“She also took away your fiancé of five years, and your father let it happen. It must have been a blow to your pride.”

“I—”

I answered what I could, but I knew that at the end of this, I would be found guilty. Even the way the judge looked at me — with such unfiltered disgust she sometimes failed to hide behind professionalism — told me what was waiting for me.

Still, I wanted to believe I would get the lowest sentence possible. Maybe I’d be released on good behavior.

My life would still be ruined, but at least I’d have it. Maybe I could build something out of the scraps.

But that hope died the moment Ethan took the stand.

I thought Sofia’s testimony had been bad enough. As usual, she relied on her tears more than the validity of her words, throwing snide remarks while pretending to be nothing more than a helpless country girl trying to survive the big city.

It was such a shallow persona that I wondered how people weren’t seeing through it. Everyone just swallowed her lies like it was lunch.

But Ethan made it worse.

“There are text messages between the two of us,” he said. “She told me how she fantasized about ending both her father’s and sister’s lives so she could get all the money. I told her not to say such things, and she brushed it off as a dark joke. I believed her because I was an i***t, and I was in love.”

I almost laughed — a twisted, cold sound — thinking about how he was probably breaking bed frames with my so-called sister every night. Maybe he had been doing it longer than I cared to admit.

And here he was, talking about being blinded by love — when that had been my flaw, not his.

He submitted the fake text messages as evidence.

Ethan made it his mission to turn the court case into his personal smear campaign. I watched the man I once planned to have children with convince an entire courtroom that I was capable of cold-blooded murder, all while painting himself as the most tragic romantic of the century.

Finally, the day came when the judge would give me my sentence.

I had already let go of any delusions of being declared innocent. That night in my cell, I mentally prepared myself, imagining what the next ten to twenty years would look like —locked away from society, only to be spat back out with nothing afterward.

Nothing could have prepared me for what the judge said instead.

“Miss Yates, I find you guilty of second-degree murder and sentence you to life in prison.”