James panicked.
He couldn't breathe. The room was spinning. He looked at the judge, at Mr. Davis, at Olivia’s stoic face.
He started answering, speaking too quickly, his words tumbling over each other in a desperate rush to survive.
"She trusted me with the finances," James blurted out, his chest heaving, abandoning the script his lawyer had written. "She never read things carefully when I told her they were routine. I told her they were just tax extensions and basic LLC renewals."
His attorney’s head snapped toward him in sheer horror. "Objection—"
"I had to move the funds!" James interrupted loudly, wiping a hand across his sweating forehead. "I was planning for the future!"
"What future, Mr. Williams?" Mr. Davis asked sharply, pouncing on the slip.
James realized a second too late what he had just said on the official record.
Mr. Davis pushed harder. "Were you planning a future with your wife, or the subordinate you coerced into a hotel room?"
James became frantic. His heart was hammering so fast he thought it might explode. He couldn't catch his breath. He had to stop lying. He had to get the truth out before his heart stopped.
"I put the documents in the stack under false pretenses!" James confessed loudly, his voice cracking with hysteria. "She didn't know what she was signing! I let her believe the paperwork was routine! I moved the money into accounts she didn't know about because I was preparing for a life without her while I made her think we were rebuilding!"
The entire room fell into a stunned, deafening silence.
The judge stared at James, then immediately ordered the court reporter to ensure every single word was captured on the official record.
James’s lawyer jumped up, desperately trying to stop the catastrophic bleeding, asking the judge for a recess, claiming his client was suffering a severe medical episode.
But James was already unraveling. He stood up, knocking his chair backward. "I need to leave the room. I'm sick. I need the restroom."
The judge saw his pale, sweating face and granted a brief, ten-minute recess.
James stumbled out of the hearing room, gasping for air. The hallway was a blur. He saw Leo standing near the restroom alcove.
Terrified, James stumbled forward, grabbing Leo by the lapels of his jacket.
"Give me the antidote," James hissed, his voice trembling with raw terror. "Please. I don't want to die."
Leo looked down at James’s shaking hands, his icy blue eyes completely blank. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, James."
"You poisoned me!" James gasped, panic taking over.
Leo lowered his voice, stepping closer so only James could hear. "Drink some water, James. Nothing is going to happen to you. It was a harmless dose. A trick. Nothing more."
Leo’s eyes were cold and merciless. "You did this to yourself."
James stared at him, the horrifying realization crashing down on him like a physical weight. He turned and sprinted to the men’s restroom. He barely made it into a stall before he violently vomited into the toilet.
The humiliation was absolute.
He was sweating profusely through his custom-tailored shirt. His hands were trembling violently. He wiped his mouth, stumbling out of the stall, and stared at his pale, terrified reflection in the mirror above the sinks.
He realized he had just confessed to felony fraud on a court record because he had believed Leo Maddox. He hated Leo more than he had ever hated anything in his entire life, but he also knew with sickening clarity that he had no proof of what Leo had said to him.
Ten minutes later, James walked back into the hearing room, attempting to salvage the wreckage.
He desperately tried to walk back his statements. He claimed he was ill. He claimed he was confused. He claimed he was suffering from extreme medical distress and hadn't known what he was saying.
His attorney tried valiantly to repair the catastrophic damage, filing a motion to strike the testimony.
