The Verdict Of Betrayal

The Verdict Of Betrayal

The Verdict Of Betrayal

**The Verdict Of Betrayal**

The Verdict Of Betrayal Chapter 01

Everyone in town believed attorney Braxton Cavendish was hopelessly in love with his wife, Desiree Hartford. For her sake, the highly principled lawyer had taken on her brother’s case, entering a not-guilty plea to defend Aden Hartford against a rape charge.

By a cruel twist of fate, the alleged victim happened to be Elena Paveley, the protégé Braxton had personally mentored for years.

Given Braxton’s flawless track record, people fully expected Aden to walk free. Instead, in the span of just two months, Braxton lost both the initial trial and the appeal.

Worse still, during the appeal, the judge increased Aden’s original three-year sentence to the death penalty.

When the news broke, everyone braced for Desiree to cause a massive scene.

After all, the day they lost the first trial, she had flown straight from a closed film set overseas to the courthouse. Waving protest signs and shouting at reporters, she had sparked a storm of public controversy.

Yet two weeks later, when the appeal verdict was announced, the reporters crowding the courthouse steps never caught a glimpse of her.

The woman they knew to be fiercely protective of her brother and completely indifferent to the rules was sitting inside, calmly making a phone call.

“Leonardo, I’ll marry you,” she said. “As long as you find someone to represent Aden in a retrial.”

After a brief silence, Leonardo Reynell replied, “Pushing for a retrial is going to be tough, and it means Aden will have to sit in prison for a long time. I have a more direct method.”

“It won’t be tough,” Desiree cut him off, lowering her eyes. “Aden lost his genitals in an accident when he was a kid. So he’s physically incapable of raping anyone.”

“We grew up in the slums, and Aden is already deaf and mute. That accident completely severed his sexual organs. I knew the shame would destroy him if anyone ever found out, so I swore I’d protect his secret for the rest of my life.”

After a long pause, Leonardo asked, “Does Braxton know?”

Desiree didn’t answer.

Once she had secured Leonardo’s promise, she ended the call, opened the door, and stepped out.

Braxton didn’t know.

Yet, in the entire month between the arrest and the initial conviction, he’d had plenty of chances to uncover the truth. If he had just bothered to ask Aden what happened, Aden would have told him to prove his own innocence.

When Desiree had first rushed back to the States, Braxton had apologized profusely. He blamed the initial guilty verdict on the complexity of the case and swore he’d win the appeal.

For the next two weeks, Braxton spent his days bouncing between government offices to build their case, while Desiree threw herself into tracking down crucial evidence. Neither of them went home during that time. She genuinely believed they were in the trenches together, fighting toward the exact same goal.

But just moments ago, during the appeal, Braxton had sat completely silent against Elena’s lawyer. He had even managed to lose the key surveillance footage Desiree had dug up — the exact evidence that would have cleared Aden’s name.

Her assistant, Mira Ordway, jogged over from the corridor, hesitating before she spoke. “Desiree, we need to take the back exit. The press is swarming out front. Mr. Cavendish did his best. The opposing counsel was Howard Rawdon. Nobody wins against him.”

Lowering her voice, Mira added, “I thought Mr. Rawdon retired years ago. I have no idea how Elena convinced him to take the case.”

Desiree stopped dead in her tracks.

“You’re right,” she said quietly. “Elena could never pull that off.”

But Braxton could. He had been Howard’s final protégé, and the two were practically family.

Years ago, Howard had looked down on Desiree for being a Z-list actress and strongly opposed their relationship. Yet Braxton insisted on marrying her. He had stood outside Howard’s house in the pouring rain for twenty-four straight hours, begging for his blessing. Yet Howard had refused to even open the door.

Braxton chose Desiree and severed all ties with his mentor.

If it weren’t for this trial, Desiree would have forgotten what Howard even looked like, and she never would have realized that the person Braxton actually wanted to save wasn’t her brother.

Before the appeal began, Braxton had asked her to wait outside, claiming her emotions might disrupt the proceedings. So she waited, only to get the news that they had lost.

Unable to hold it together, she had ducked into the restroom. While she wept until her throat ached, she overheard someone on the phone just outside her stall.

It was Elena.

“Brax, thank you for getting Mr. Rawdon for me, and for destroying the evidence. I couldn’t have survived this if you hadn’t stayed by my side these past few days.”

A sudden, heavy numbness washed over Desiree. The blood in her veins seemed to freeze.

Braxton’s voice sounded cool, yet laced with a soft indulgence. “He assaulted you. Professionally and personally, I’ll make sure he pays.”

As the call dragged on, the pieces finally clicked into place.

Two whole months had passed from Aden’s initial detention to his formal arrest, from the filing of the case to this exact moment.

As the defense attorney, Braxton hadn’t visited Aden once. He hadn’t even looked at the crucial evidence Desiree had handed over — he had just thrown it away.

He had eagerly taken the case and kept her in the dark for one reason — to prevent her from hiring another lawyer. He wanted to personally guarantee that the man who supposedly hurt his precious protege ended up on death row.

And Elena had framed Aden for one simple reason — Aden had warned her to stop wrecking Desiree’s marriage.

Desiree closed her eyes. She remembered casually venting to Aden about how Elena’s constant, clinging obsession with Braxton annoyed and frightened her.

She remembered her own reaction when she first heard Aden had been sentenced to three years in prison. Devastated, she had cried hysterically, “Aden would never do something like this! Elena is lying. She’s the one who belongs in prison. I’m going to find her — I need to ask her what the hell really happened!”

But Braxton had cut her off, his tone entirely flat. “Don’t go to her. I know Aden won’t do that, and I’ll win the appeal. You just need to trust me right now. We have to move fast.”

And she had trusted him.

But it turned out that when he promised a win, he meant winning for Elena. When he asked for her trust, it was because he had blindly believed Elena without a shred of investigation.

If he had bothered to meet with Aden even once, he would have discovered that the alleged assault was physically impossible.

Desiree walked briskly down the hall until she ran into Braxton.

“Where did you go?” he asked. “The verdict requires a family member’s signature.”

Desiree glanced down at the document in his hand but didn’t take it. Instead, she just looked up at his face.

She had looked at this face for five years.

When they first met, he wasn’t anybody famous. A group of executives, eager to network, had pressured him to drink. She had watched him frown but accept every single glass, so she had stepped in and taken three of the shots meant for him. Later, when he asked why she did it, she had smiled. “Because you remind me of my brother. You keep pushing yourself, even when you’ve clearly hit your limit.”

He ended up winning a lawsuit for her, and eventually, he became her husband.

He had once promised her, “Desi, I’ll never betray you.”

Desiree stared at him in silence until Braxton finally frowned.

When she spoke, her voice was dead calm. “Braxton, let’s get a divorce.”