Meanwhile at the other corner of the same building, Roald and William were talking. William seemed a bit tensed and worried. Roald on the other hand was quite relaxed.

“Don’t worry my friend. Two witnesses are not enough,” he reassured his client.

But then he stood up straight and got a little serious.

“But what you have done was completely stupid,” he said.

“I know, can we not talk about it here please?”

“You know you are very lucky that you were in a club where movie cameras were not allowed. Otherwise you and your son would have…”

“…Just listen to me please,” William said, “what happened was a mistake. And now there’s no time to cry over the spilt milk. We need to think right now that what is the evidence Stephen is about to show in court.”

Roald thought about it for

a while.

“Do you have any clue?” William asked.

“Well I have a feeling that he’ll come up with something really good.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry but you’re the one who has made it easy for him!”

William was enraged raising his voice and his finger.

“You are my lawyer. I am paying you per day here. And you know I’m paying really well. Your job is not to make me feel guilty. Do you understand that?”

“What do you want me to do? Lie to you?”

“I’m not saying…”

“…The recess is over,” Roald interrupted. “Let’s go back inside.”

Inside the court room, five minutes later, the judge of honour looked at Stephan.

“Do you want to share your evidence with the court?”

Stephen thought for a while until the judge of honour repeated himself.

“Mr. Stephen, are you or are you not willing to share your evidence with the court?”

“Yes your honour. I’d request you to show the video clip in the projector’s screen,” Stephen replied after few seconds.

“Very well then,” the judge declared, “turn off the lights please.”

William was tensed now. Roald threw away the pen he was holding angrily as if accepting defeat.

The lights were turned off.

After thirty seconds, the projector’s screen came to life. And after another whole minute, the video began to play, and the footage was very unclear.

The video was being shot from above in a 45 degree angle from the road. A couple was walking and a vehicle came from behind that hit them. It was visible that the woman was the one hurt, who after rolling from the car fell on the road.

The deep shade of blood was also visible that started to flow out of her body. Furthermore, the guy who stepped out of the driver’s seat had long hair and his face was not quite visible.

While watching the video, Simeon was very much afraid wondering if he would get caught. His father was also tensed.

“I think I’ll get caught today,” Simeon said to his father.

William kept his finger on his lips as if telling him to keep quite.

In the video:

Simeon was standing by the injured woman, Evelyn, but his face was not visible as the video was shot from above and his long hair was covering his face.

The video was paused here and zoomed into his face. The picture got even more unclear. The judge looked at the picture closely and then waved at Stephen indicating that he had seen what he wanted to see and now he should turn off the video.

After a moment, the video was switched off by Stephen and the lights were also turned on.

Everyone in the court room was now waiting for the judge to speak.

The judge finally said:

he judge started:

“I’m sorry Stephen, but your evidence is not strong enough.”

There was a little noise in the court room. Everyone was shocked especially Mr. Schimberg and his son. The judge continued:

“Order! Please let me finish. I must say that Stephen you have done quite well this time. And this is why I’m going to give you another chance. I want you to present this video in a better and clearer version. If you can, then the jury might be in your favour.”

Stephen was sitting in a calm position as if winning the case didn’t really matter to him. The judge turned to look at Roald.

“Defense, on the other hand, is given a chance of proving in the court that Simeon is medically insane and the person driving the vehicle who stepped out of the vehicle that we saw in the video was someone else.”

“Thank you your honour,” Roald acknowledged.

“The court is adjourned for the day. Our next session shall be held on Monday,” the judge concluded.

Everybody in the court stood up, William was sitting really relieved with his eyes shut.

“We’re celebrating tonight,” Simeon said to Roald.

“Shut up!” William said to his son. “You were just lucky today, that’s all.”

“Whatever,” Simeon replied, ignoring his father.

William looked at his son, fuming.

Roald picked up his files and left the spot.

“So what are you going to do now?” Benjamin asked Stephen on the other side at plaintiff’s table.

Stephen didn’t respond. He was still, like he couldn’t even hear Benjamin talking to him.

That evening, Simeon was preparing to leave the house with his friends. He was holding the keys of the car and was almost about to open the door and step out when he heard his father.

“Simeon!”

He turned back and looked at his father standing there angrily.

“Where are you going?” William asked.

“I told you before, I’m going to celebrate today.”

“What is the matter with you? Haven’t you learned anything today? You were lucky today. Days before, we made a blunder of going to that club,” William said, walking towards his son.

“That was your idea, not mine.”

“You are a thankless and shameless child, I have been struggling day and night to save you. And you are ungrateful. Ungrateful as ever!” William said losing his temper.

“I am not being ungrateful, all I’m trying to say is that you were the one who forced me. I didn’t want to go to the club that night. You said that we should…”

“…Shut up!” William said raising his finger. “Don’t say another word. You killed a woman and I have been hiding your crime. And this is the gratitude I get?”

“You aren’t saving me. You are saving your own reputation.”

Angry William picked up a glass and threw it on the wall. The glass shattered.

“Just calm down,” Simeon said. “Okay fine, let’s talk this out. Please calm down, okay?”

“You are a killer!”

“I am not a killer. It was an accident and you know it. I had nothing against that woman. She came in my way. She was walking in the middle of the road.”

“Don’t teach me rules of the road. You were the one who was driving with the headlights off.”

“They weren’t off, they were diffused, that’s all.”

“Don’t fool me. I know what’s with that car. And if you think that I will spare you after we are done with case then you are wrong. There’s plenty of stuff that you won’t be allowed even if we win this case.”

“Like what?” Simeon said harshly.

“I’m not going to tell you that right now.”

“Tell me damn it.”

“Mind your words, young boy,” William warned raising his finger again.

Simeon angrily threw the car keys away.

“That’s it,” William said. “You’re not going anywhere today.”

“Okay listen to me first,” Simeon said to him. “Alright, fine I won’t go outside until we win this case. But after we do, then we will make some boundaries. And within those boundaries…”

“…Don’t try to negotiate with me,” his father interrupted, “I have given you enough already. You will do what I’ll tell you to do. And if you won’t obey me, you will have to hire your own lawyer then. I will take Roald off this case.”

“Oh,” Simeon replied slyly, “but would you risk your reputation?”

“I might. I’m not afraid to do that.”

“So be it. I will hire my own lawyer. Because I’m a grown man now and nobody tells me what to do. Not anymore.”

William looked at his rebellious son and realised how shameless he was.

One Day Later

Benjamin and his father were in a car. Benjamin was driving the vehicle and they were headed to Stephen’s office.

“Don’t worry. I’m quite sure that we will win this case,” Mr. Schimberg said to his son.

“How are you so confident about it?”

“Because we are halfway up there.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that we have already provided two witnesses. And the court has accepted their testimony.”

“What more do we need?”

Mr. Schimberg was silent for a while.

“I have faith in Stephen. I know he will find out some way,” he said after a minute.

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Oh come on son why are you being so pessimistic and hopeless? Why? Why are you doing this?”

“What other option do I have?”

“Come on Benjamin. What is the worst that can happen? We’ll lose the case, so what? We can take the matter to the high court. We’ll appeal.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to?”

“Oh my God. My son now I am disappointed. You are being so negative today. Why is it so? Have you lost all the hope in the world?”

“I don’t know. Misery has always been a part of my…”

“…Okay I want to hear no more!” Mr. Schimberg interrupted his speech.

“Fine.”

“You need to get out of the house more often.”

“I don’t have any friends out there.”

“So go to the church. Spend some time there. I’m sure you’ll find some hope.”

“I don’t need hope I need answers.”

“You’ll get your answers there. Just spend an hour or two there.”

They didn’t talk further. Benjamin kept on driving.

Several minutes later, they finally reached their destination.

Ten minutes later, they were inside the office. Stephen wasn’t in and they were waiting for him to show up.

Benjamin was browsing through the collection of books. He was trying to figure out how hard it was to do the lawyer’s job.

“I never want to be a lawyer when I grow up,” he said.

“You don’t have to be,” his father replied. “No one’s even telling you to become one.”

Benjamin was silent sensing his father’s annoyance.

However, several minutes passed and there was no sign of Stephen. So Mr. Schimberg dialed Stephen’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hi Stephen, where are you?”

“I’m uh I’m at…” Stephen answered as if he was confused. “I’m not at home.”

“We are waiting for you at your office. When are you coming?”

“I don’t think I’ll be there anytime soon.”

“What?” Mr. Schimberg asked, surprised. “Weren’t we supposed to meet today?”

“I know I know. We were but I’m stuck here with a little task.”

“Oh man… Tell us should we wait or should we leave?”

“You can leave. How about I come to your place instead? In the evening.”

“You can…” Mr. Schimberg said hesitantly, “we can…we can talk then.”

“Sure. Bye.” The call got disconnected. Mr. Schimberg looked at his phone wearing an unusual expression on his face. “What happened?” Benjamin asked.