He Favored Her So I Took My Patent To His Rival Chapter 08

He Favored Her So I Took My Patent To His Rival Chapter 08

Three days later, the court summons arrived.

Silas’s once-elevated judge’s seat now belonged to someone else.

He was called as a witness, seated in a small bench off to the side, forced to look up at the judge’s bench.

His robes were gone, his judge’s license revoked. He didn’t even have a lawyer.

And seated at the prosecution’s table was me.

I wore a black suit, hair pulled back neatly, a thick stack of evidence in front of me.

Silas looked up and saw me across the room.

His lips moved, as if trying to say my name.

I looked down and opened the first page of my file.

The trial lasted six hours.

I sat as the plaintiff, with Adriel’s legal team beside me and reporters lined up behind.

Silas was no longer the cold, untouchable judge.

He wore a rumpled dark gray shirt, sitting rigid on the witness stand, hands clasped tight,

knuckles white.

The first half was mine.

I laid out Leah’s theft of the technology step-by-step on the big screen.

The UV inspection report of the invisible forensic security code. The bank records of the

forensic examiner accepting bribes. The surveillance screenshots of Leah deliberately

smashing the emerald pendant.

Every piece of evidence was like a nail, hammered precisely into the lid of a coffin.

Leah sat in the defendant’s seat. Her face went from pale to ashen, from ashen to green.

Her lawyer tried to push back, but every time he opened his mouth, I shut him down with even

stronger evidence.

By the second half of the trial, the judge called on Leah to give her final statement.

The moment she stood up, I knew exactly what she was going to do.

“It was Silas! He made me do everything!” she screamed, pointing at Silas. “He told me to

fake the report; he planned the banquet. He promised me that if I cooperated, he would make

sure Oaklynn never recovered!”

The courtroom erupted.

Silas closed his eyes and said nothing.

He had probably known this moment would come.

The woman he’d protected for ten years threw him under the bus at the first sign of trouble.

Leah ranted, screaming out every dirty deal between her and Silas over the past decade.

Everyone in the room was staring at Silas.

He sat there in utter silence. His face was the color of ash.

The verdict was never in doubt.

Leah was sentenced to twelve years for corporate espionage and bribery, plus a massive

fine.

Silas was remanded for prosecution on judicial misconduct and abuse of power.

The gavel that had once been his weapon now sealed his downfall.

After court, the hallway swarmed with reporters.

I walked ahead, Adriel beside me.

Behind us, I heard hurried footsteps.

“Oaklynn.” Silas’s voice was so hoarse I could barely recognize it.

I paused.

He pushed through the crowd, stripped of arrogance, only desperation left.

His hand trembled toward my sleeve.

“Oaklynn… I’ve given it all up. The robe. The reputation. The freedom. I’ve handed over every

last bit of it. I have nothing left.” His voice shook. “Can we… start over?”

I stepped aside, avoiding his hand as if it were something filthy.

The crowd around us went still for a moment. Everyone was waiting for my answer.

I looked at him, calm as if he were a stranger. “You’re not even worth being my enemy.”

Then I turned and kept walking.

Sunlight flooded the courthouse doors, bright and warm.

The moment I stepped over the threshold, a flash of cold light caught the corner of my eye.

A middle-aged woman with disheveled hair lunged at me from the side. In her hand was a

fruit knife, pointed straight at me.

“You ruined my daughter! I’ll kill you!”

It was Leah’s mother.