Chapter 4 - The Unraveling
The sound of shattering glass tore through the courtroom as Eleanor knocked over a heavy water carafe during her frenzy. Paper and shards soaked into the wool runner between the counsel tables. Julian scrambled backward, trying to distance himself from his deranged client, but the marshal's grip was ironclad.
""Control your client, or I will have her gagged,"" Clara commanded, not even flinching as Eleanor’s shrieks bounced off the plaster ceiling.
Two female bailiffs rushed the defense table, catching Eleanor by her slender, silk-clad arms. They forced the elderly matriarch back into her seat. Her pearl necklace snapped under the sudden strain, the milky spheres bouncing and scattering across the polished floorboards like dropped teeth.
""You think you're untouchable because you wear that black dress, Vance?"" Eleanor spat, her manicured fingers clawing at the table edge. Strands of dyed brown hair fell loose around her manic eyes. ""My family built this city! Your father was a two-bit dockworker who owed my husband everything!""
Clara’s expression didn't waver, but the air around the bench seemed to drop ten degrees. ""My father was an honest longshoreman, Mrs. Davenport. The exact kind of man whose retirement savings paid for your winter home in St. Moritz.""
Clara picked up the gavel for the first time. The solid hickory wood rested firmly in her hand. She did not strike the sounding block; she simply weighed it, its presence sufficient to demand obedience.
""Julian Sterling,"" Clara said softly. ""You have thirty seconds to decide whether you are entering a guilty plea to tampering with judicial officers, subornation of perjury, and secondary conspiracy, or if you wish to spend the next forty years in a federal penitentiary with Marcus Gable.""
Julian looked at Eleanor. He saw the manic fury in her eyes, the complete absence of loyalty. She had used him as her attack dog, her legal shield, and when the assault failed in the corridor, she had discarded him in a heartbeat.
""I want immunity,"" Julian choked out, his throat burning. ""I'll give you everything. I have the digital backups. The offshore accounts, the bribes to the appellate judges... everything.""
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""Julian!"" Eleanor shrieked. ""I will have your life!""
Cliffhanger: Julian leaned into his microphone, his hands trembling as he spoke clearly: ""The hit on you today wasn't meant to scare you, Judge Vance. It was ordered to kill.""
