Chapter 19
Fourteen days later.
Amber used her one phone call on the other witness.
He answered once. Breathing fast. Already packing.
"They're arresting witnesses now," he said. "I'm gone."
The line went dead.
She didn't call her mother. She couldn't explain this in a way that wouldn't sound like panic, and panic was the last thing she wanted to hand over. She told herself it would be temporary. That someone would show up. That this was just how the process worked.
No one did.
The system moved slowly. So slowly it felt deliberate.
They couldn't find her a lawyer. Not one. Paperwork stalled. Requests disappeared. Days stacked without answers.
Fourteen of them.
Fourteen nights under fluorescent lights that never fully dimmed. Walls that carried sound but swallowed voices. Sleep that came in fragments and left her more tired than before.
On the fifteenth morning, two guards stopped at her cell.
"Conference room, you have a lawyer" one said.
They cuffed her hands behind her back and walked her down a corridor that smelled faintly of disinfectant and old metal. The door buzzed open.
She was already seated when they uncuffed her from behind and fastened one wrist to the table.
The man across from her was wearing a Charcoal Grey suit.
"You should've just pleaded the Fifth," Elias said calmly.
Amber lifted her eyes.
"That's what it exists for," he continued. "To protect people. Your rights."
She tried to speak.
"I just—"
Her voice cracked and stopped. Her gaze fell back to the table. She hadn't slept properly in two weeks. Everything felt distant, as if her body was still here but the rest of her was lagging behind.
The man leaned forward slightly.
"I'm getting you out of here," he said. "From now on, you don't speak to cops. Or anyone else, for that matter, unless I'm present."
She nodded faintly.
"No testimonies," he went on. "No emails to private law firms. Not about your case. Not about any other case."
He stood, smooth and unhurried.
"Trust me."
Amber finished the story without embellishment.
Christian didn't interrupt. He didn't comment. But his fist had tightened at some point, fingers curled into his palm without him noticing.
When she stood to leave, Irin rose as well.
"I've got prep," he said, already turning back toward the kitchen.
Amber nodded once and followed him out.
The silence that remained was heavier.
"So that's how he did it," Cassian said quietly. "That's how he removed the witnesses from my mom's cases."
Christian looked up.
"The restaurant won't release CCTV," Cassian continued. "And without witnesses…" He exhaled. "There was nothing left to prosecute."
Nothing to base it on.
Nothing to hold.
That afternoon.
The building was unremarkable. Clean. Efficient. No attempt at intimidation.
Inside, the assistant barely looked up before gesturing them through.
The main office door opened.
A chair faced the window, back turned to them.
It rotated smoothly.
Elias didn't gesture for them to sit.
He didn't tell them to leave either.
He leaned back slightly, fingers steepled, eyes drifting from one face to the next as if confirming inventory.
"how's Mom doing" he said looking at cassian . Cassian clenched his fist but Elias didn't engage him further , didn't even pay much attention to him
Then he looked at Junior.
"That friend of yours in juvie," Elias said casually. "He should be out soon."
Junior stiffened.
Elias tilted his head, thinking.
"How long did he get?" he asked himself. "Two hundred and ten days, wasn't it?" A pause. "So… just under two months left."
He smiled faintly, as if pleased he'd remembered.
Junior didn't respond. His jaw clenched, but he said nothing.
Elias's attention shifted.
"And you," he said, looking at Christian. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
The room went still.
Christian met his gaze without flinching.
"You would remember if you did," he said evenly. "Am I right?"
Something flickered in Elias's eyes.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he leaned back again, the swivel chair rotating a fraction toward the window.
"That will be all," Elias said, already elsewhere. "For now."
He had already decided , they're not worth his time. He's not even going to give them time of the day
Cassian felt Alicia's words echo again, sharper this time:
He doesn't forget anything.
No arguments.
No context.
No people.
Especially people.