"Mister Wellesley, I understand that you are a lawyer, just like me." Tomas Bishop said, pacing in front of David in a way that was so calm, and so slow, that did nothing but increase my anger, and my frustration, and my need to puch him.

"I am."

"Being that so, I understand that you are capable of recognizing what's right, and what's wrong."

"I am, indeed."

David answered his questions apparently unaffected, gracefully succeeding to hide the emotions in his hazel eyes, and managing to do so without covering them with his dreamy lashes. He didn't blink. He was alert, concentrated on doing his best, underlining his inherent victorious essence in every gesture.

"Well, do you believe Miss Blake's robbery was right, or wrong?"

"Objection; irrelevant." my lawyer said, standing up.

"No, I will answer that." David exclaimed, clenching his perfect teeth more than ever. " I believe that her robbery was utterly right. I believe that Miss Blake has morals, unlike the rats you are defending."

"Objection; inappropriate." Thomas Bishop said, stopping his furious speech.

"Agreed." the judge said, but David kept talking.

I had definitely transmitted my recklessness to him.

"I believe that Miss Blake was just trying to prevent people from rotting out, with her discovery." he barked.

The judge sighed and looked at him in a way that transmitted both pity and annoyance.

"Mister Wellesley, please go back to your seat." she said.

"I believe, your honour, that if you send Tessa Blake to jail, Fleming&Florey will turn her brilliant, liberating discovery into another Nazi experiment."

The crowd gasped louder that before.

"Mister Wellesley, I won't tell you again. Go back to your seat and stay silent."

Fleming&Florey's alleged authors of my research were next. They explained in an apparently proficient, but detail lacking way how they had presumably come to my conclusions. The judge looked convinced. We were - immortal - dead men.

"All rise." the legal clerk said after they finished.

It was time to hear the sentence. I wanted to hold David's hand. My legs would shiver much less if I was allowed to do that. But I wasn't. I wouldn't be allowed almost anything from that moment. I was a prisoner.

"I have taken every testimony and evidence in this matter under submission, and after careful consideration, my ruling is as follows: I sentence Miss Tessa Blake to ten years of-"

The doors burst open. A middle aged woman that looked surprisingly familiar run into the courtroom.

"Your Honour! Your Honour! I am terribly sorry that I couldn't be here earlier, but I assure you my testimony is of vital importance in this matter. I am Sophie Curtis."

Of course. Her tan skin and perfect features resembled David's enormously.

"I work at Fleming&Florey, and I was the one to slip in Miss Blake's research, which was given to me by Mister Timothy Abbey."

I turned my head to David. His jaw was no longer clenched. It had dropped. The crowd was gasping and murmuring, taken aback by the sudden change in the course of the events.

"Your honour, this woman has a medical history of anxiety and depression, I don't think she is in good condition..." Thomas Bishop said.

The judge looked annoyed.

"Shut up, Bishop. I want to listen to her. Miss Curtis, please stand up behind the central desk."

David's mum moved slowly towards the desk.

"I am David Wellesley's mother."

David watched her with glassy eyes.

"I started to have an intimate relationship with Timothy Abbey while I was still married to David's father, Hugh Wellesley."

"See? I told you. She's unstable." Bishop whispered, but loud enough that everyone could hear.

"Attorney, stay silent." the judge said, harshly.

"I was twenty-five, and disoriented, and... very ambitious. I was working with my husband on a research project about diabetes, and I decided to publish it on my own. I got all the credit. I became quite an eminence, and found Timothy Abbey a place as a Professor at King's. Our relationship wore out slowly, but he tried to get back with me several times. Last November, he called me and caught my attention when he said he had something that would make me as powerful and influencing as I was when we first met. I was tempted by that. Now I understand he was looking precisely for that, for me to be tempted. He knew that knocking the door on my ambition was the only way to get me back for good. He didn't tell me the research was Miss Blake's, he told me he had coordinated it, but had worked together with a lot of students. I don't know if I believed him... I was blinded by how much I wanted it. Abbey told me that he didn't want to deal with all the fuss, so I swore him I wouldn't tell anything about him. But when I found out my ex-husband's daughter Lucy was pregnant, I had to share the news with my family. I had already failed them enough, and..."

Her eyes were glassy too. I had never pictured her like that, so real, so sincere, so beautiful. I expected an insensitive, cold... bitch.

"David." she said, and he almost jumped. "I know I have failed you. I know I have hurt you, so much. And I have had to live with that, with my mistake... Ever since. I know that perhaps you will never be able to forgive me, but I have to ask you again. I love you. And I am so, so sorry."

"Your honour, I don't believe this is the place..." Thomas Bishop said.

The judge sighed, but I could tell that she agreed with the attorney.

"Miss Curtis, you have another minute."

Tears were running down Sophie's cheek. David had managed to hold his back, but I knew his thoughts weren't in the courtroom, but recalling every moment, every interaction, every gesture of love, that he had shared with his mother.

"Anyway, I told my family that the discovery had been made by Fleming&Florey." Sophie continued. "I didn't find out it was Miss Blake's until I heard about the demonstration my son had taken part in. I didn't even know my son was her lawyer until then. I told Abbey that we had to tell the truth, and he refused. I didn't want to betray him, I was lonely, and I was falling in love with him again... But these last weeks, knowing that my child was in danger, I made up my mind to speak up. I know it's late, but I brought everything necessary to prove what I said."

The legal clerk took the documents that Miss Curtis had brought, and the judge considered them for what seemed to be the best showcase of eternity. Finally, the legal clerk said, again:

"All rise."

"After taking the last testimony and evidence into consideration, my ruling is as follows: Miss Tessa Blake, Miss Lindsay Blake, Miss Alexandra Giles, Miss Africa Garnett and Mister David Wellesley are free to go, without any charges. Another hearing will be held on May 3rd to analyze the responsibilities and actions of Miss Sophie Curtis, Mister Timothy Abbey and the enterprise Fleming&Florey in this matter."

Free to go

Free to go

Free

What did you think of this chapter? Did you expect David's mother to be related to Abbey? Do you think that she and David will be able to make things right? Let me know in the comments!

I will upload the last chapter of the novel tonight! If you enjoyed the book, don't forget to vote on every chapter :)

Remember that the first chapter of the sequel - If I live forever, can I live now? - will be up on September 15th.

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