Chapter 5

The day of the final verdict.

Before court convened, Austin gently reassured my nervous father.

"Relax, Harold. I've got this."

He turned to me, placing his hand on my shoulder for a brief second.

"Go sit in the gallery. Don't be afraid."

That fleeting moment of tenderness made a tiny crack in my frozen heart.

Maybe he really could win.

Maybe there was still hope.

But just as the bailiff announced for everyone to rise, Austin's phone buzzed violently three times.

He answered it, and his expression crumbled.

It was Ashley.

She said she was standing on the downtown bridge, ready to jump.

Austin turned and made a dash for the exit.

Instinctively, I grabbed his briefcase, holding on for dear life.

"Austin! The court is about to start! This is the final trial!" My voice was shaking.

"Ashley is on a bridge, Clara! A life is at stake!" He violently threw off my hand and barked at Zach. "Hold the fort! I'll get her down and be back in thirty minutes max!"

At the defense table, my frail father spoke up, his voice trembling.

"Austin... go. Save her first. Don't let anything happen to her."

Austin seized the excuse immediately, commanding me, "Did you hear that, Clara? Think of the bigger picture!"

The bigger picture.

I watched his retreating back, finding even disappointment to be a luxury.

An hour and a half passed.

Austin did not return.

Without a lead attorney, our defense crumbled under the opposing counsel's relentless attacks. My father's face grew paler by the minute.

Unable to sit still, I ran out of the courtroom and dialed Austin's number repeatedly.

First call, no answer.

Second call, he finally picked up.

Through the receiver, I could hear the howling wind and Ashley's post-rescue whimpering.

"Austin, I was so scared..."

I pressed my back hard against the freezing wall, using every ounce of strength to keep my hands steady.

"Austin, get back here right now! We have a crucial piece of supplemental evidence that only you can submit!"

But on the other end, he was still whispering comforts to Ashley.

"Ashley is too unstable right now. I can't leave her." He even turned it around on me. "If you had extra evidence, why didn't you give it to me earlier?"

At that moment, I laughed.

I laughed so hard tears streamed down my face.

He had never once realized that every minute I spent waiting here felt like sitting on a bed of nails.

I silently hung up the phone.

At five in the afternoon, the final verdict was delivered.

My father lost. The company was ordered into immediate bankruptcy, and he was personally saddled with millions in debt.

As the judge slammed the gavel, my father looked at me, his lips trembling. Before he could speak a word, he collapsed straight backward.

"Dad!"

He suffered an acute stroke right there.

It was seven in the evening when Austin finally showed up at the hospital with Ashley.

When he learned my father was in the ICU fighting for his life, his usually composed face finally lost all color.

"Clara, I..."

Without a word, I pulled the pre-signed divorce papers from my bag and slapped them hard against his chest.

"We are done, Austin."

"As soon as my dad wakes up, I will sue you for malpractice and everything else you've done."

Ashley stood nearby, still trying to play the innocent party. "Clara, don't blame Austin, it's all my fault..."

I didn't even want to look at them. I turned toward the closed ICU doors.

Just as Austin reached out to stop me, his phone rang on speaker. It was Zach.

Zach's voice came through, filled with shock and anger.

"Mr. Vance, we have a major problem! I just heard that the opposing counsel got drunk at their victory dinner... They let it slip."

"They said they only won because Ashley Miller leaked our key defense strategy to them."