Twenty-Two (END)

Everything in the room goes still, tension quickly rising between both parties. My mother has gone stark white, and I can see her trembling. She, like me, remembers exactly who this man is.

She knows, she has already lost.

Judge Cane knows just how aware and involved my mother was, when it came to my father's past crimes. There is no way she can try and play the innocent card, or worst, like she has already been trying to do; use her own kids. I should've seen that dirty trick coming.

None of us saw this coming.

Judge Cane clears his throat and shuffles some papers around in front of him. "Now, Marion, we have met before. Like today, it wasn't with good intentions. Seems not much has changed over the years, I'm ashamed to see that."

"Your Honor, there has been a mistake–"

"What mistake would that be?" Judge Cane asks, holding a hand to cut her off.

My mother seems to fumble for the right words, but comes up empty. Judge Cane lets out a small hum before looking back at his papers.

"The only mistake here, Ms. Bradford, was you trying to persuade the jury of your misdoings, which I don't quite like. Now, I know who you were in the past, and looking at the crimes placed against you today, I can see that indeed, nothing has changed. Your sob story, unfortunately, will not work."

I have to hold back the snicker that rises in my throat, turning away to hide my now red cheeks. Never, has anyone ever spoken to my mother like that, not even Charles or I. Everyone knows my mother likes to play the victim cards with her sob stories, but no one has ever told her where to stick them practically.

Today is really turning into a good day. I can barely contain my excitement – and my humor.

"Your Honor, I believe that is highly unnecessary," one of my mother's lawyers says.

Judge Cane lifts his brows at him. "Oh, and is not personally attacking your opponent not unnecessary as well? Using the broken bond of a family, to persuade a group of individuals to lean your way? I find that highly unnecessary."

"Yes, your Honor."

"Now, back to the case, if we can," Judge Cane calls everyone to order. "Marion Bradford, today you are being charged with the intent to commit violence upon Ava White, the intent to commit violence upon her family, the illegal binding of an arranged and contracted marriage, for the forging of personal signature, and therefore breaking the American given rights, of sir Ashton Bradford." Judge Cane reads from the multiple papers placed in front of him.

"How do you plead?" he asks, staring my mother straight in the eye. I can still see her tremble under his gaze, like a mouse caught in a trap.

"Not guilty, your honor," she manages to mumble out. Judge Cane frowns, and looks back down at his desk.

"Alright, you may call your first witness," he says, and they all scramble to gather themselves. I take the time to look behind me at Ava, who looks just as white as my mother did a moment ago.

But she manages to give me a soft smile, and a small thumbs up. Though her smile doesn't touch her eyes, I know it's genuine. I give her a wink before turning back around. I look at the stand, and I'm not surprised to see mother sitting there.

Thinking about it, I can't think of what witnesses she could call to her case, besides a personal friend, but I didn't think she really had any, other than whoever was at the country club she could no longer afford to go to.

But what could they say for her? They all know who she is, and what she has done. Even if a generation has come and gone, there are still people in this town who know what happened, but just stay quiet about it.

"Marion, did your late husband ever threaten you, into doing things you might not want to do?" her lawyer begins his questioning, of course going right for the obvious. As much as I know Judge Cane is not buying it, he does have to properly listen to all testimony, to give a fair ruling.

I know, with that in mind even, we have this case in the bag. But there is still a part of me that is scared. Scared there isn't going to be enough evidence against my mother, or one testimony from Ava herself isn't going to be good enough.

For that part, a jury for us would have really come in handy. People who know what my mother has done, what my family is capable of. But now, my only hope rests on Judge Cane, and my evidence.

"Yes, there were many times where he threatened my life, and my children's life, if I were to ever tell anyone about what was going on. I know, it has seemed like I was an acquaintance to my late husband's crimes, but I always had to remain strong and calm, or my life was at stake."

I tried not to roll my eyes. There are many times my mother had threatened me, over taking an extra cooking.

"Had you ever refused an order from your husband?"

"Yes, there has been one time where I said no to something my husband wanted to do," she says, and looks straight at me. There is no emotion in her eyes, but I can tell she is trying to say something silently.

"What was that time? Could you tell us what he had asked you to do?"

She continues to look at me while answering. "Yes. My husband came to me, and said he wanted to start preparing our son, Ashton, to take over the family business. I said no, because he was 12-years-old."

"Besides Ashton being such a young age, was there any other reason you had risked saying no?" the lawyer prompts.

"My late husband ran a gang, a gang that requires initiation. That initiation, was to kill a targeted man."

My heart stops, and my ears start ringing.

This isn't true.

I know my father had planned for me to take over the family business, but I thought he always meant the insurance company, at least the legal part of it. I suspected that illegal business was going to be involved.

I never thought that was what he wanted.

There is no way what my mother is saying is true. My father was a terrible man, but he would never initiate a 12-year-old buy, his son, into a gang, that requires you to kill a man.

That is just pure evil.

"Everything I have done; I have done for my children."

***

"That doesn't excuse the treatment you gave us, after our father was gone. For years afterwards, you denied Charles and I any freedom of choice or will, forcing us to do your bidding and making sure you were always kept well looked after, while we did the dirty work," I call out.

"Ashton, your father was menacing man, and I'm trying to confess my sins and be forgiven," my mother pleads, getting off the stand to walk towards me.

I hold a hand up towards her. "I'm not really in the forgiving mood. I want to see you live with nothing, to understand the greedy and selfish lifestyle you have been living now. You don't deserve forgiveness, not until you see the damage you have inflicted upon others. I'm here today, to make sure you never get a hold of that company, and whoever does, isn't going to give you a cent."

My mother gasps, a confused look on her face. "What do you mean? What happened to Theodore?" she asks.

I raise a brow. Does she really not know? If so, that means she isn't the mysterious buyer, and has nothing to do with them.

"He is no longer buying the company, as I'm sure your aware of."

A panicked look crosses her face, and she looks between me, her lawyer, then Judge Cane. She is trying to look for someone to help her, knowing her only lifeline has now been snatched out from under her.

"Is this a set up? To get me to confess to some crime you all think I committed? I have never broken the law, or done anything outside of my rights," she says, eyes shifting back and forth.

"Mother, calm down. This isn't a set up."

Suddenly, the door to the court room opens a crack, and a skinny, nerdy looking man comes rushing in. He walks right up to Ava in the front row and hands her a stack of papers, whispering something in her ear, then scurries off like he was never here.

Before I can move towards her, Ava stands up and moves toward the stand. She gives me a small smile as she passes and approaches Judge Cane, handing him the papers.

He looks over them as we all hold our breaths in anticipation. His eyebrows shoot up and he looks over to me then my mother.

"We have new information regarding the buyer of The Bradford Company, it seems it has been purchased and the market is already back up and running," he says, and holds the papers out for either one of us to buy them.

My mother scrambles forward and snatches them up, scanning it frantically. "This isn't possible," she mutters. Her lawyer soon joins her at her side and reads over her shoulder, before he too looks shocked.

"So, Ms. Bradford, with this new information; how will you plead?" Judge Cane asks. She doesn't say anything, instead she looks towards Ava. I see the fury behind her eyes, sparking like fire.

I lunge for Ava, but I'm too far. My mother lets out a frustrated cry and rushes towards her. She attempts to grab a hold of Ava's throat, but the guard standing by the witness stand snaps into action and jumps on her, restraining her on the ground.

"Order, Ms. Bradford! What the hell is wrong with you? Guards, take her away, we will deal with this matter later," he grumbles and bangs his gavel. The guard drags away my delirious mother, who is still struggling and crying out against the guards.

Charles and I stare at her in utter shock until the doors close. I rush over to Ava and make sure she is okay, but she holds up a hand and smiles at me, reassuring me she's fine.

"Alright, well that pretty much settles things here. We will convey at a later time; I will mail off a reschedule date. For now, celebrate this small victory Mr. Bradford. You and your family are finally free," Judge Cane smiles, banging his gavel once more to end everything.

I gather Ava in my arms, hugging her to my chest tightly and breathing in her sweet scent.

It's finally over.

I pull back to look at her, remembering the papers she handed to Judge Cane, the reason my mother went insane.

"What happened? What were those papers, and who bought the company?" I ask her.

She simply smiles. "I did, silly."

My mouth pops open and I take a staggering step back.

"Y-you bought my father's company? Why would you do that?" I ask, saying it loud enough for Charles and Lucas to hear behind me. They walk over and give her shocked and confused looks as well.

She bites her lip and explains everything from the beginning; how she found out someone was buying the company and he was threatening Ashton into marrying his daughter, so she did some digging of her own on Theodore Griffin and discovered he is an active business member of her father's.

Even though she didn't want to speak directly with her father, she managed to get a hold of one of his agents, and asked for any information he had on Theodore, which prompted her to get in touch with him when she dug up some pretty incriminating things.

Theodore listened to her plan of wanting to buy the company, so that Marion believes that she has nothing, that Theodore has betrayed her and left her hanging. When everything is settled, and Marion is safely behind bars where she can't manipulate the company, or anyone else for a while, Ava agreed to sell the company to Theodore for half the price that Marion was willing to sell to him for.

We all look at her with awe. I never saw that coming, I'm blown away at how well thought out she planned everything, and how she carried it all out on her own, not a single help from me or the guys, or even her parents technically, besides her father's agent.

She still risked exposing herself to her parents by doing that, all so she could see my mother finally go down.

So that we can finally be free to be together.

"You are amazing," I whisper and caress her face in my hands, admiring every small detail of her beautiful features. "What have I ever done to deserve you?"

She giggles, and it is music to my ears, like always. I can never tire of hearing that sound, or her voice in general.

"Let's go home, we have a little someone waiting for us," she says and reaches for my hand. I gladly take it and lead her out of the court room, waving good-bye to Lucas and Charles, and briefly stopping to thank Mr. Newton for a job well done, telling him he will be getting a hefty bonus on top of his payment for his assistance.

The feeling of walking out of there, hand in hand with Ava, is indescribable, but I never want it to go away. I want to wake up, and feel like this every day, for the rest of my life.

Now, I know I can.

The day has finally come, I achieved my goal and found my dream.

THE END