“He’s not coming. We have to go back. He’ll probably meet us tomorrow.”

Benjamin stood up immediately and walked towards the exit of the room. His is father also stood up and quite slowly followed his son.

That evening Benjamin was sitting in his room, upset as usual. He was looking at the window.

A picture of Evelyn came in front of his eyes. He closed his eyes and changed his position. He thought:

Why can’t you simply forget her? Why can’t you just move on with your life? Like everybody. Why can’t you be like everybody else? Alive. You need to do better. You need to forget everything happened and just move on. You can do it.

He got distracted by the doorbell but continued talking to himself.

Life is not going to be easy if you keep on mourning like this. You need to make a move. You have to go out and start over.

His:

“Mr. Stephen’s here. Come let’s talk to him,” his father interrupted coming to his room.

Benjamin responded in a nod.

His father left and he stood there thinking for a while.

A few minutes later, in the guest room, Stephen and Mr. Schimberg were seated.

“Mr. Schimberg today you’ll be really proud of me. You will not have enough words to thank me,” Stephen said.

“Really? Why, what is it?”

“Where is Benjamin?”

“So what did you find today?” Mr. Schimberg asked trying to avoid his question.

“I’ll tell you but where is Benjamin? Is he coming?”

“I don’t know, he is not so active these days.”

“Not active?”

“Please forget it. Just tell me what you have.”

“Well what happened today is that at my house while I was preparing to leave, William and his son came for a visit.”

“Oh my God. What happened then?”

“Well they were…”

He stopped talking when he saw Benjamin entering inside the room.

“As I was saying Mr. William and his son came to my house for a visit. They were asking me to withdraw from the case. Blackmailing and other sort of stuff,” Stephen continued once Benjamin sat down with them.

“Oh no. Then what?” Mr. Schimberg asked curiously.

“But what I did this time was something clever. I turned on a camera secretly. Without letting them know. And all this time, while they were talking to me, Simeon’s every act is recorded. The way he was talking like a normal person.”

“Wow, that’s great.”

“So does this mean we will win this case,” Benjamin asked.

“Most probably,” Stephen replied.

“Do you have the video right now?” Mr. Schimberg asked.

“Yes I do. I’ll send it to you afterwards, you can see it later. But the good news is that we have evidence now. And I haven’t even told you the best part yet.”

Benjamin and his father were alert and listening to him.

“In the video, Simeon admitted that he was the long haired guy who stepped out of the car.”

“Really? How come?” Mr. Schimberg asked. “I mean how and why did he admit?”

“I made him admit it. I was the one who asked the question.”

“Come on show us the video, please.”

“Alright.”

Stephen took out his phone.

He played the video and forwarded it to the part they wanted to see. He then handed over his phone to Mr. Schimberg and Benjamin.

In the video:

Simeon face was very clearly visible.

“So it was you who stepped out of the car? Tell me honestly if you want me to cooperate with you.”

“Yes it was me,” Simeon replied clearly. “I got a haircut when you filed the case.”

“Oh my God. That’s perfect. Now I think we have won the case for sure,” Mr. Schimberg said pausing the video.

“Let’s just wait for three more days until we meet at court.”

Three Days Later

Mr. Schimberg and his son Benjamin were seated and were excited for the day’s events at the plaintiff’s table. As Stephen showed up, they heard the bailiff saying:

“All rise!”

Everybody stood up. The judge of honour made his way to his seat and said:

“Sit down.”

Everybody got seated. The judge declared:

“Prosecution may proceed.”

Everyone waited for Stephen to say something. But he remained silent. A whole minute passed and he didn’t say anything. Benjamin and his father were quite surprised seeing him like this. The

judge of honour finally broke the silence.

“Prosecutor, do you have anything to present?” He asked Stephan.

Stephen looked at defendant’s table for few seconds.

“I have nothing your honour,” he announced.

Mr. Schimberg was brutally shocked hearing this.

Mr. Schimberg was brutally shocked as he heard this. Benjamin looked at Stephen with utmost surprise.

“Do you want to restate what you just said?” the judge of honour asked him just as surprised as the others.

“Sure your honour,” Stephen answered standing up. “I no longer represent my client. That’s all.”

There was a noise and chattering in the courtroom. “Order!”

The judge declared.

“May I?” Roald said as he stood up.

“Yes, go on,” the judge allowed.

“Your honour, I have a witness whose testimony is really important.”

“And who is this witness?”

“Mr. William’s servant, Baron.”

“Proceed.”

Baron stood up and walked to the witness stand.

“Oh my God,” Mr. Schimberg said looking at Stephen. “What are you doing?”

Stephen did not respond at all. Roald walked closer to the witness stand to face Baron.

“So Mr. Baron, where were you at the night of the accident?”

“I was outside, driving Mr. William’s car.”

“So you were driving Mr. William’s car? Did Mr. William know this?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“So you took the car without his permission?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s going on Dad?” Benjamin asked turning to his father.

“I don’t know. I can’t believe my eyes.”

“What was it? I mean were you upset with him? Was he not paying you enough? What was the real issue?” Roald asked Baron.

“No there was nothing like that. I just took the car out of my own.”

“But there has got to be a reason for that.”

“Yes, I was just going to my friend’s house. I just wanted to have fun.”

Roald chuckled.

“I doubted it,” he commented.

“Tell us honestly Mr. Baron. Did you or did you not turn on the headlights?” he asked Baron, pacing in the room.

Benjamin was focused on every word of the testimony.

“No I didn’t,” Baron replied.

“You didn’t. And what were the consequences of your action?”

“I hit a woman. Probably Evelyn, of course.”

“You do know what you are saying, don’t you?”

“Yes I do. What I am saying is the truth.”

“So what you mean is…” Roald asked walking towards the jury, “You are accepting the responsibility of Evelyn’s death?”

There was silence in the court room for several seconds. Baron was not answering the question. He looked at his employer William. “We all want to know Mr. Baron! Tell us are you responsible for Evelyn’s death?” Roald asked him again.

“…Yes, I am.” Baron replied after few seconds.

There was noise in the courtroom.

“Great! Perfect!” Roald exclaimed. “You heard what he said your honour. The case is resolved now. The criminal has admitted to his crime.”

The judge of honour turned to Stephen.

“Although you are not allowed to, but would you still like to cross question the witness?”

“No, your honour,” Stephen replied at once.

The judge looked at his notes and cleared his throat.

“Very well then, the court shall give its verdict tomorrow morning. In the meantime, the court is adjourned,” he announced.

As everybody stood up and prepared to leave, Stephen was the first person who stood up and immediately left the courtroom. Benjamin and his father were so shocked looking at him go.

“He double-crossed us,” Benjamin said to his father.

“I know. What should we do about it?”

Benjamin turned his head and looked at Roald. Roald and his clients were smiling and talking with glee. Even the servant Baron didn’t seem upset.

Stephen was sitting in his home thinking about the old days in nostalgia’s grip.

Several days back when he was in his office, he was on the phone with someone.

“…It’s about money. It’s all about money this time.”

After his call got disconnected, he took a deep breath and sat back on his chair as he was feeling relieved.

Thank God, he uttered.

He heard someone knocking on his door.

“Come in,” he responded.

William Spacey opened the door and entered inside. Stephen looked at him and got alert.

“Yes?” he asked.

“May I sit?”

Stephen understood why he came here.

“Just tell me, what exactly do you want from me?” he said.

“Can we sit and talk?” William said to him.

Stephen didn’t respond and just closed his eyes. William sat on the chair.

“I’m going to pay you three times the amount Schimberg is paying you,” he offered.

“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to lose this case.”

“I’m sorry, I just can’t do this,” Stephen answered without even thinking about it.

Stephen came back from his flashback.

“I can’t believe I refused the first time.”

He then remembered what happened just a few days back

Mr. William and his son Simeon were seated at his home. He was sitting opposite to them when he heard his phone ringing. He looked at the caller ID, it was Mr. Schimberg’s call.

“Its Schimberg,” He told William.

“Just do as I say,” William said. “I will pay you a huge amount.”

Stephen answered the call after several rings.

“Hello?”

“Hi Stephen, where are you?” Mr. Schimberg said from the other end of the line.

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

William gave a thumbs up.

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

“I don’t think I’ll be there soon.”

“What?” Mr. Schimberg asked getting quite 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… Should we wait or should we leave?”

A minute later, when the call was disconnected.

“So you are paying me to withdraw from this case or losing this case?” Stephen asked William.

“Whatever you like. But I do want you to shoot this evidence today. Show them that you have captured our video in which Simeon admits to his crime. So they won’t have a clue about this. That we are paying you.”

“I know what you mean.”

Stephen kept his phone aside and started shooting the video.

“Simeon, I’m going to ask you the questions and you’ll answer them as you know how.”

“And remember,” William instructed. “You are just supposed to show it to them. Nothing more than that. Do not forward the video. Do you understand that?”

“Okay, I got it.”

“And you’re going to their house today, okay?”

“Okay I’ll go, now please let me shoot the video.”

Stephen came back from his flashback to the present.

“So what if I sold my conscience to them? I made a fortune.”

He smiled and sat back feeling relieved.

Benjamin was standing outside his home lost in a thought.

There has got to be something. Something has happened I’m sure. That two-faced Stephen has either been purchased or he is being blackmailed. I’ve got to find out. I’ll have to do something.