Page 126 of Forgotten Prejudice

“Yes.”

“Beverly Bay High, or BH, as the kids call it, is a rather prestigious school. Therefore, I can’t help but wonder how those kids managed to get in.”

Ashton took a deep breath and then straightened in his chair. “They each got a scholarship,” he said proudly. Only his pride disappeared once Jones went on.

“I have a record here showing that your first application to sign the four kids to the school, made when there was no scholarship yet, was rejected. The same applies for the other three requests you submitted the following year. The only request accepted was the fifth one, and this happened only after the school received an anonymous donation. That seems quite convenient, don’t you think?”

Ashton’s eyes widened, and he looked dead lost. “I-I don’t know anything about this.”

“Are you sure? Because it sure seems like a lucky coincidence.”

“Objection, Your Honor.” I got to my feet. “Counsel has no grounds for these claims. It’s outrageous to even suggest such a thing was done without a single shred of evidence to base it on, not to mention it’s not relevant to the case.” My hands shook with my rage, and I clenched the pen in my hand until it nearly broke. He was making a mockery out of Ashton in the most cruel way imaginable.

“Calm down, Counsel,” Jones said in a patronizing voice. “I’m done with this witness.”

I gritted my teeth so hard I feared I’d break them while glaring back at that asshole. He might be done with Ashton, but I wasn’t done with him. And he was about to pay for this shitshow he ran today.

After the hearing was done, Jones and I went to the judge’s chambers, where I argued that Ashton’s cross-examination was a poor attempt to personally attack me. Since it so obviously was. The whole matter about ruining Ashton’s character to show that he was a lousy guardian had no actual relevance to the case, yet the judge still allowed Jones to go on with it. It was only further proof of what I already knew—Christian owned Jones and wanted to try to get into my head since we were doing well. That man loved playing dirty. And it was about time we started doing it, too. Even if Daniel warned me to play fair, it was hard to win when the other team wasn’t following the fucking rules.

The conversation with the judge turned out to be a waste of time, and now I was back in the halls of the courthouse, looking for Ashton. Unfortunately, before I could track him down, I came across Christian, who was busy talking to a few reporters and saying he couldn’t wait for justice to be served and that his son’s attacker deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars. I fully agreed with Christian, although I doubted he’d fancy wearing an orange jumpsuit over his tailored clothes.

Not far from the press conference, I spotted Ashton’s boys. They, too, were busy watching Christian giving his heart-wrenching speech, their faces nothing but a display of disdain.

“You did well today.” I opened with that while placing a hand on Andrei’s shoulder. Just like Ashton said, Andrei was indeed a remarkable young man.

“Yeah?” He looked at me, voice rough.

“Yes. Thanks to you three, now the jury knows about Camilo’s and Shay-Lee’s relationship and their deep connection.”

A small smile took over all their faces before Andrei cocked his head in Christian’s direction. “What’s he doing here?”

“Playing a role. Nothing more.”

“Do we know what’s going on with Shay-Lee?” It was Jessie who asked.

“Last I heard, he’s still in the hospital.”

“Will he testify?” Levi asked, his eyes narrowed.

“Sadly, no.”

“How’s that even possible?” Jessie squealed, jumping off the stair rail he was sitting on.

“The victim is allowed not to testify, Jess,” Andrei explained, impressing me.

“That’s almost the case, but not exactly,” I corrected him.

So far, Shay-Lee’s refusal to testify wasn’t that simple. Because of the details of this case, even though he acted with contempt of court by refusing to testify, he was only fined for that. After all, no one would send that poor kid to jail for refusing to speak of what was done to him. And since money wasn’t a problem for Shay-Lee’s dad, the court could fine them until the end of time, and it wouldn’t nudge them from their tactic. The prosecution used Shay-Lee’s rights and twisted them in order to get what they wanted, which was keeping him away from court. Have I mentioned they played dirty?

“In any case, we don’t want to compel Shay-Lee to testify but have him do it out of his own will.” No one wants a scared victim on the stand.

“So ask him. I’m sure he’ll want to do it,” Jessie said, always the optimistic.

“If only it was that simple,” I snorted. “The hospital is refusing to let us even speak to Shay-Lee, so we can’t even try and convince him otherwise.” I twisted my lips, remembering our numerous attempts to get access to the Shay-Lee. Among other things, Christian had hired a private security team that made it nearly impossible to get close to his son. “Besides, Shay-Lee doesn’t even remember the entire week before the attack occurred. So in any case, he can’t tell us who did it.”

“But he can say that he and D were in love and about to run away together!” Andrei jumped in, his jaw tensed and eyes focused.

Seeing the connection between these kids was enough to tell what a remarkable job Ashton had done with them. I read their files and saw where they all came from, and without a doubt, if it hadn’t been for Ashton’s good heart, they wouldn’t have been here today. He always had the ability to see into people’s hearts, regardless of the stereotypes following them.