Chapter 5
Fight
Gale Fears
The previous night was still flashing in my mind as I walked into the conference room. I could still feel her lips pressed against mine, still hear her moans in my ears as I held her close. I could still feel her skin under my hands as I traced her up and down. I could still feel her writhing against me as I took her again and again.
“…we need to confirm the number of plaintiffs in the case,” Seth was saying. “If more people are willing to join us, then we need to know soon. We have to file the case in court.”
“Set up a meeting with everyone who agrees,” I said, pulling myself out of my thoughts. “Call every single girl he ever abused and request their involvement. Beg them if you must. But get them here. It’s our only hope of winning this.”
“Alright,” Seth said. “I will get everyone onto that.”
“Tell everyone in the company not to travel alone,” I said. “Tell them to be careful. The Mavericks might go after anyone.”
“Yes, Mr. Gale,” Hillary said, her voice robotic. “I will issue a memo.”
“Also, make sure this stays within our team,” I said. “There is a chance that they might try to bribe someone. Steal out files or evidence in the hope of either spying or sabotaging us. This will stay strictly among my team. All files will be under lock and key, understood?”
Seth nodded and walked away. I had made sure that only my most trustworthy lawyers were on my team. But of course, I knew even the most loyal employee could be bought. Hence, I had something arranged for that too.
Hillary stood, collecting all the meeting notes as she got ready to leave.
The door of the conference room banged open, and Stella walked in, dressed in one of the raunchiest dresses I had ever seen her wearing in public.
“Darling!” she said, walking over and pressing her lips against mine.
“Stella,” I said, feeling a wave of repulsion.
She wrapped her arms around me and whispered, “Don’t you turn away from me. Don’t forget the fact that I own you, Gale Fears. Don’t you forget what I can do to you if I decide you are not playing well enough. Understood? For the past few days, you have been ignoring me. In public, you are nice enough, but when we are alone, you just ignore me. I was giving you the time to get to terms with your life, but you are pushing it too far. You’d better become the loving boyfriend, or else what awaits you is a fate much worse than you can imagine.”
“Sir!” Heath shouted, rushing in. “There is a problem. The Durrick case. They know!”
“I know about you and the girl,” Stella whispered. “I know what you did with her last night. Someone sent me some rather enticing pictures of the two of you together. What’s happening now is just a taste of what will happen if you don’t clean up your act and start acting like the man I want you to be. Get it?”
∞∞∞
“We recently received a file from an anonymous source showing that the Gale Fears team were well aware of Mrs. Durrick’s crime. He had her trailed by a private investigator, and it seems he knew that she was, indeed, guilty of her husband’s murder. Of course, as a lawyer, he is within his rights to defend his client despite being aware of her guilt. In fact, he may be legally bound to do so. But that doesn’t change the fact that Gale defended a criminal while having the evidence needed to convict her. A murderess is roaming free among us, which raises the question of how many other times the justice system failed us.”
The reporter turned to the legal expert next to her and said, “What do you have to say about the actions of Mr. Fears?”
“Well, as a defense lawyer, you can never truly know if your client is guilty or innocent,” he said. “But if you know about their guilt for sure, the law states that you have to continue defending them to the best of your abilities. Or you plead to the court and resign from the case. Legally, you can’t question the actions of Mr. Fears, but ethically, it raises some questions. Especially because Mr. Fears’ firm promises to be fair and just and ensure that justice is upheld. If Mr. Fear hadn’t emphasized these ethics and made them the very foundation of their firm, it would be less of a bother. But for a man who promises that he always makes sure justice is delivered, it raises the question, why did he defend her after knowing the truth? Why didn’t he at least submit a request at court to be allowed to resign from the case? What about the injustice that took place? And, of course, it raises the possibility that Gale Fears can be bought.
We all know that Mrs. Durrick is extremely wealthy, and her influence would have brought a lot of high-paying clients to Gale’s firm. Especially with the recent accusations of corruption of their senior partner. It begs the question, is the Fears’ firm entirely corrupt? Was Mr. Fears paid off to defend a woman he knew was guilty? If he is such a herald of justice, why didn’t he resign from the case? While he can’t be held legally accountable, this does put his firm under great suspicion.”
“There you have it, folks,” the reporter said. “With the Fears firm facing charges of corruption, the white horse of justice is under attack. Gale Fears is not the hero the world saw before. Stay tuned to hear more debates about the recent incident.”
“Just shut it,” I said, feeling a wave of fury run through me. I couldn’t believe Stella had done this. I couldn’t believe she had gone so far. Someone was working with her. Who could have sent those pictures to her? Who told her about Hillary and me? Who did she have spying on us? Was she really willing to do all this just to stay with me? Was she that crazy?
I always knew she was a bit mentally ill, but would she do something so drastic? I looked around the office as I walked out, my mind running over all the people working there. It had to have been one of them who betrayed me, but who could it be?
There was one thing I was starting to feel sure about. It was the fact that Stella wasn’t doing this alone. And I was going to find out who was involved with her, or my name wasn’t Gale Fears.
