CHAPTER 78: THE COURTROOM SHOWDOWN
Donovan's gun didn't waver. Neither did William's.
"Put it down Dray." Donovan's voice was calm like we were discussing the weather. "Or I'll put bullets in everyone you care about starting with your wife."
"You won't make it out alive." William shifted slightly, putting himself between me and Donovan.
"Neither will you." Donovan smiled. "But at least I'll have the satisfaction of watching you lose everything first."
The two men flanking Donovan moved into the room. One kicked Carlos's gun away, the other trained his weapon on Liam.
My hand went to my jacket where the hard drive pressed against my ribs. Everything we needed to destroy them both was right here and I was about to die with it.
"The evidence." Donovan's eyes locked on my hand. "That's what you came for isn't it? Hand it over."
"No." The word came out steadier than I felt.
"Kate don't be stupid. You're pregnant, you have a chance to walk away from this."
"I'm done walking away."
Donovan sighed. "Then I'm sorry it has to end like this. You would have made an excellent ally."
His finger moved to the trigger.
"Wait." William lowered his gun. "Let them go and I'll give you whatever you want. Money, connections, I'll even sign over half my company."
"William no—" I started.
"Shut up Kate." He didn't look at me. "Donovan, do we have a deal?"
Donovan considered it. Behind him Carlos groaned from the floor, still bleeding.
"Half your company and the evidence." Donovan nodded to me. "Everything she's carrying."
"Fine."
"William you can't." I grabbed his arm but he shook me off.
"I can and I will." His jaw clenched. "Because you and our baby matter more than revenge."
Something hot pressed behind my eyes. This couldn't be happening. We were so close.
"Smart man." Donovan gestured with his gun. "Now have your wife hand over those files."
"Kate." William finally looked at me. "Give them to him."
I stared at him. At the man I'd married in a contract that became something real. The man who shot my uncle to protect me. The man who was willing to give up everything he'd built.
And I saw it. The slight movement of his eyes toward the window. The way his hand flexed at his side.
He had a plan.
"Okay." I pulled out the hard drive and USBs. "Here."
I held them out to Donovan. He reached for them.
And I threw them out the open window behind me.
"No!" Donovan lunged forward.
William fired.
Not at Donovan. At the chandelier above the two guards.
It came down in an explosion of crystal and metal. One guard went down immediately, the other dove sideways but Liam was already on him.
Donovan spun back to William but Tina grabbed a paperweight from the desk and threw it. It hit him square in the temple and he staggered.
William tackled him. They went down hard, the gun skittering away.
"Get out!" William shouted at us. "Go now!"
I ran for the window. Two stories up but there was a trellis and I'd climbed worse as a kid. Tina was right behind me.
"You're insane!" she yelled.
"You coming or not?"
She cursed and followed me over the sill.
The trellis groaned under our weight but held. We dropped into the garden just as police sirens wailed in the distance.
"The files." I dropped to my knees in the flower bed, searching. "Help me find them."
"Kate the police are coming, we won."
"Not until I have those files in my hand." My fingers closed around the hard drive. One USB was stuck in a rose bush. "Found two, where's the third?"
Tina spotted it near the fountain. "Got it."
Footsteps pounded above us. Shouting. Another gunshot.
"William." I started back toward the house but Tina caught me.
"Don't. Trust him Kate, trust that he knows what he's doing."
The front door burst open and Liam stumbled out, his lip bleeding but grinning. "Donovan's down. William's got him pinned. And the police just pulled up."
I sagged against Tina. "It's over?"
"Not yet." Liam nodded toward the street. "You still have to testify."
---
Six weeks later I stood outside the courthouse, my hands shaking around the evidence envelope. The media camped on the steps, cameras ready to catch every moment.
"You ready?" William adjusted his tie beside me.
"No." I looked at him. "But I'm doing it anyway."
We climbed the steps together. Reporters shouted questions but I didn't answer. Inside the courthouse, Carlos sat between two lawyers, his arm in a sling from William's bullet.
He didn't look at me. Couldn't, maybe. Or wouldn't.
Donovan was in a different courtroom, facing his own charges. But this trial was mine. My parents' justice.
"All rise."
The judge entered and we stood. My legs felt like water.
The prosecutor laid it all out. The forged documents, the planted evidence, the conspiracy to commit murder. And then she called me to the stand.
I walked up there with my head high and my hand on that envelope.
"Miss Jones, can you tell the court what you're holding?"
"Evidence." My voice carried across the silent room. "Proof that Carlos Jones, my uncle, orchestrated my parents' deaths for financial gain."
Murmurs rippled through the gallery. Carlos's lawyer stood.
"Objection. This so called evidence has not been verified—"
"It's my father's handwriting." I cut him off. "His voice on the recordings. His blood on the transfer documents Carlos forced him to sign."
"Miss Jones please—" The judge started.
"He killed them." My voice broke but I pushed through. "He killed them and stole everything they built and tried to make me think it was all my fault for not being smart enough, strong enough, worthy enough to inherit what they left me."
Tears ran down my face. I didn't wipe them away.
"But I am worthy. And they deserved better than to die because of his greed."
The courtroom erupted. The judge banged his gavel but I wasn't done.
"This envelope contains signed confessions from three of Carlos's employees. Financial records proving he embezzled from Jones Corp before the crash. And a recording of him discussing the hit he ordered on the plane."
I pulled out the last item. A photo of my parents from the day before they died, smiling at a company event with Carlos beside them.
"He pretended to love them. And then he murdered them."
Silence fell.
Carlos finally looked at me. And there was nothing in his eyes. No remorse, no guilt. Just cold calculation, wondering if there was still a way out.
The prosecutor took the envelope from my shaking hands. "The state would like to enter this into evidence, your honor."
"Granted."
The trial lasted three more weeks. Expert after expert confirming what I already knew. That my uncle was a killer who'd gotten away with it for eight years.
Until now.
When the verdict came, I was in the front row between William and Tina. Liam sat behind us with Jeremy who'd helped trace every digital footprint Carlos had tried to erase.
"On the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, we find the defendant guilty."
My hand found William's.
"On the charge of fraud and embezzlement, we find the defendant guilty."
Tina squeezed my other hand.
"On the charge of forgery and identity theft, we find the defendant guilty."
The judge read on but I stopped hearing. Guilty. On all counts.
Carlos stood for sentencing, his face a mask. But his hands shook when the judge spoke.
"Carlos Jones, you have been found guilty of orchestrating one of the most calculated and cold blooded murders this court has seen. You betrayed your own family for money and power. And for that, I sentence you to life in prison without the possibility of parole."
The gavel struck.
Carlos turned to look at me one last time as they led him away in handcuffs.
I didn't flinch. Didn't cry. Just watched as the man who destroyed my childhood disappeared through the courthouse doors.
"It's done." William wrapped his arm around me. "You did it Kate."
"We did it." I leaned into him. "I couldn't have done this alone."
Tina hugged me from the other side. "Your parents would be so proud."
Outside the courthouse, reporters swarmed but I stopped on the top step. William started to pull me away but I shook my head.
"I want to say something."
The cameras turned to me. Microphones thrust forward.
"My name is Kate Jones Dray." I took a breath. "Eight years ago my parents died in what everyone believed was a tragic accident. Today justice was served for their murders. To anyone out there who thinks they can silence the truth through violence and corruption, this is proof that eventually, someone will stand up and fight back."
A reporter called out. "What will you do now?"
I looked at William. At Tina and Liam standing beside us. At my hand resting on the small bump just starting to show.
"I'm going to reclaim what's mine. Jones Corp is coming home."
The cameras flashed. Questions flew.
But I was already walking down the steps, ready to rebuild everything Carlos had tried to destroy.
And this time, nobody was going to take it from me.