"Not guilty," I said to the three judges in front of me. I know at least one of them is planning my downfall and at least one is on my side. I haven't been able to decipher how Kora feels about this case.
"Lets not waste time. We will let Giovanni Zevo come up to the stand first," Kora tells us in her firm voice. I can tell she has a lot of experience with cases. She's stern, straightforward, but doesn't let anyone know what she's thinking.
I watch as Giovanni stands from his seat and walks over to the wooden stand. He takes a seat a few feet in front of me and tries to avoid eye contact with me.
I can't believe everything that has happened. The events that occurred has pitted my bestfriend and I against each other. I'm not surprised that he can't even look at me. He sees me as this monster who killed his father, and I'd see him in the same light if I saw my father dead and all the facts pointed to Gio being the killer.
"Describe the events that led up to you being at the Midnight packhouse in New York," Cassandra commands Gio.
For a second, he doesn't say anything. He closes his eyes and breathes to compose himself. When he steadies himself, he opens his eyes and looks directly into mines.
A chill runs down my back from the look he gives me. I don't show it, but it hurts how he looks at me. I can see the pain his father's death has caused him and I can feel it as his eyes dig into me.
I know that pain and I just want to yell out to him that I'm sorry for what happened, but I know it won't fix anything.
"Donaghy told us that he could feel something happening to Chris. That she was being hurt or tortured. Alaric, Hanna, Jaisley, Donaghy, and I decided that we were going to fly to New York to check on Anne and Chris, but we knew it was going to take a while to get there and we didn't want to waste any time," he starts off.
He doesn't move his eyes off of me, but I wasn't going to be the first to budge, so I looked back at him, not letting any emotion show other than calm and collected.
"So, we called my father, Markus Zevo, since he was stationed in New York at the time. He told us that he'll go on a search for Anne and Chris to make sure they were okay. We all hopped on a plane to New York. The whole way there, we were all panicking, but we knew Anne and Chris would be ok."
"Once we landed, we tried to call my father again, but he wasn't picking up. So, we went to see if we could find the girls at their apartment. They weren't there, but we looked for anything that could point us in their direction and found Chris' computer with a location placed somewhere in the forest. We followed the directions there and-"
Gio stops for a second and I can see him visibly shaking. Heat rolls off his body from the anger I can see boiling inside him.
"Giovanni, please continue," his sister demands him.
Giovanni doesn't want to relive what he saw and I know what he's going to say next. I remember it. The blood. The broken limbs. The smell. The ocean of bodies I left behind.
I feel icky remembering all of it. I know it was the only way out and I had to fight for myself and my baby, but I feel nauseous thinking of the monster inside me that created so much blood shed.
"There were dozens of bodies leading up the front porch. We hadn't known it was Anne and Chris who had done it, but I was hoping neither of their bodies were in that mess. All I was thinking at that moment was that someone really sick and twisted must've done this."
"We all rushed into the blood bath house, looking for any sign of life. Anne wasn't there, but I eventually found the lifeless body of my father and Chris on the ground. Chris was crying over my father's cold body. She played a part in the deaths of all those wolves, but she acted as if she were the victim in the situation."
"Everyone else gathered around my father's body, but none of them could know how I felt. Chris sat there and told us a bullshit story about how her and Anne were kidnapped and were forced to fight for their lives against rogue wolves. When we stepped onto the mansion, there was no scent of rogues and my father is clearly not a rouge, so she had to be lying."
My father started taking down notes of everything Gio is saying. I can't even bring myself to focus on winning this case. I'm just listening to everything Gio is saying. Everything he says is so cold and dead. It almost makes me want to believe that I am a killer.
If I really think about it, I am a killer. Even if I killed for the right reason, it's still killing and that makes me killer. So, I can only brand myself as a false hero because that's what I am. Killing for good doesn't make me any less of a murderer. I have a lot of blood on my hands.
"So, how did you think it was Anne that killed your father and not Chris," Kora asks him.
"I sent a search party to go see if Anne went back to her apartment. She had been there, but she left by the time they got there. They found her sword covered in my father's blood."
My father raises his hand and every eye went to him. Everyone waits to see what he has to say.
"May I cross examine," my father asks.
"You may," Cassandra gives him permission. My father clears his voice and puts on his business face.
"Giovanni, how did you know the sword was Anne's," my father asks. I'm not sure where he's going with this, but I trust him and stay silent.
"I've seen her with it many times before. I'm sure a lot of people have," Gio says through grinded teeth.
"So, you're saying a lot of people have seen Anne with this black and red katana before?" My dad lifts up a picture of the weapon in question.
"Well.... Yes?" Gio gives my dad a confused look.
"Does this question have any relevance in this case," Gianna asked, annoyed.
"Yes, I'm getting to the point," he grumbles. "So, if everyone knows this sword is Anne's, isn't there a possibility that Anne could have been framed?"
I heard gasps from all around the room and I almost wanted to gasp myself. I know for a fact I was the one that used Dragons Blood to pierce into Markus' heart and in a hurry to get on a plane to Berlin, I left it behind.
I understand what my dad is doing. He's discrediting Gio. There's no way anyone can be completely sure on what happened if they weren't there. My dad could say anything and make Gio trip over himself, forcing everyone to doubt Gio's words.
"No! I know for a fact that Anne wasn't framed," Gio snarls out, but my dad stays calm.
"How would you know? There aren't any witnesses to what happened. You said you had no idea what happened, you found a crying Chris that tried to explain everything, but you were too angry with your father's death to even listen to what she was saying."
"No that's wrong," Gio tells my father.
"How so? We all know how you reacted after your father's death, You were kicked off of the higher court because of it. Someone could have planted that piece of evidence or what Chris told you was true, but your anger blinded you from seeing all the evidence that points to her story being true," my father finalizes.
"Then what explanation is there for the death of all those wolves? Did someone kill all those wolves to frame Anne or were they an evil rogue group," Gio asks sarcastically.
"Magic does exist in this world. Anything is possible," he answers. Whispers go around the courtroom and I can hear opinions shifting and changing. "A skilled witch could hide the tracks of all their spells. You wouldn't be able to tell if they were really rogues or not, or if your father was really brainwashed, if the witch doesn't want you to find out."
"NO," Gio abruptly barks out, banging his fist on the table. "You all need to accept that Anne isn't some angel. Her and her cousin went to New York looking for blood and killed any wolf pack they ran into first. They wanted revenge and they got what they wanted! I hope they both burn in hell."
I feel dizzy as Giovanni storms past me to leave the courtroom. The big, heavy doors slam shut behind him.
"And that is why we can not trust anything Giovanni says about this case. He is blinded by his anger and cannot see the facts clearly. He's only here to seek revenge for his father, which I sympathize with, but not when it involves locking away an innocent person," my father tells the people in the court.
I fear he's too good at his job. But, this battle is not over.