Married to the Billionaire Who Betrayed Me novel Chapter 258

Chapter 258 Reading The Names Out Loud

The flashes from the press cameras blind me. I do not blink. I keep my focus on the man standing at the prosecutor’s podium.

Federal Prosecutor Sterling stares at the stack of papers on my defense table. He attempts to hide his panic. He grips the sides of his wooden stand. His

knuckles turn pale. He prepares his attack. He needs to discredit me before I speak.

“Mr. Chairman, Sterling says. His voice rings through the chamber speakers. “The defendant brings props to a federal hearing. She attempts to create a

circus. I ask the committee to focus on the established facts. Minerva Hayes orchestrated a terror campaign against her own corporate infrastructure. She

hid illicit funds. She fled justice.”

The Committee Chairman looks down from his elevated mahogany bench. He adjusts his glasses.

“The committee will hear the charges,” the Chairman states. He turns his attention to me. “Ms. Hayes, you surrendered to this chamber. Prosecutor Sterling submitted a five-hundred-page affidavit detailing your crimes under the RICO act. How do you respond?”

*I respond with the truth,” I say.

I do not sit in the leather chair. I stand at the defense table. Tristan stands one step behind me. His presence feels like a wall of heat against my back. We operate as a single unit. I am the blade. He is the shield.

“The truth is in the federal record,” Sterling interrupts. He grabs a piece of paper from his podium. He waves it in the air. “We traced the IP addresses. We found the ghost accounts on your personal servers. You transferred three billion dollars to the eastern syndicate to fund hijackings and corporate sabotage.”

“You found the digital footprint Julian Whitmore created for you,” I counter. My voice echoes in the massive room. I do not use a microphone. I project my voice. The cold steel of my tone cuts through the murmurs of the crowd.

Julian Whitmore sits in a maximum-security prison,” Sterling sneers. He plays/to the cameras. He thinks he holds the high ground. “He confessed to his role in your conspiracy. He provided the digital keys to your personal servers. He cooperated with the federal government to expose your crimes.”

Julian Whitmore cooperated with you to frame me, I correct.

I pick up the first stack of printed documents from my briefcase. The paper feels heavy in my hands. The weight of ten years of corruption.

“You froze my corporate assets, Prosecutor Sterling,” I continue, I walk around the side of the defense table. I step into the open space between the table and the elevated bench. “You claimed the Johnston Group operated as a criminal enterprise. You told the world I stole Thomas Whitmore’s dark money.

“You did, Sterling says. “The evidence is undeniable.”

“The evidence is a fabrication,” I state. I raise the stack of papers. “This is the true ledger. The master file from the Geneva proxy. The unredacted record of

Thomas Whitmore’s offshore accounts.”

“What do these manifests prove, Ms. Hayes?’ the Chairman asks.

“They prove I am not a criminal,” I answer. “They prove I am the victim of a coordinated federal robbery. They prove Prosecutor Sterling built his career on  my father’s payroll.

The chamber erupts.

Reporters scream questions. Aides whisper frantic words to the politicians. The noise deafens my ears.

The Chairman bangs his wooden gavel. “Order! Order in this chamber!”

The room quiets down to a tense, suffocating hum.

Sterling steps away from his podium. He walks toward me. “This is slander. I will file additional charges for perjury. I will lock you in a dark hole for the rest of your life.

Tristan moves. He leaves the defense table. He steps between me and Sterling.

Tristan does not speak. He stares down at the federal prosecutor. The Johnston titan looks at Sterling like a boot looks at a cockroach. Sterling stops walking. The prosecutor takes a step backward. He fears the physical threat in Tristan’s gray eyes.

I step around Tristan. I keep my focus on the bench.