My Fake Death Was The Punchline To His Cruel Joke Chapter 15
They had tracked my movements from the moment I left the hospital. They had my Denver apartment lease and photos of me entering a therapist’s office.
The media latched onto the story instantly.
“THE FIANCÉE WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD: REVENGE OR RECKONING?”
“HIGH-SOCIETY SCANDAL: CAN THE STAR WITNESS BE TRUSTED?”
Outside the courthouse, Camille’s lawyer gave a press conference, his face a mask of solemn concern.
“My client may have participated in some regrettable jokes, but Ms. Ortiz was never dead. She deceived everyone and immediately started a new life. Can the testimony of someone so calculating truly be considered credible?”
They twisted the truth, deliberately conflating the issues.
I had never forged a death certificate, never collected on an insurance policy, never once claimed in any legal capacity that I was dead.
But the sensational headlines had already poisoned the jury pool.
The prosecutor warned me that the judge might limit my testimony, or even declare me a hostile witness with a clear motive for revenge.
Leo slid an iced coffee across the table.
“Looks like an all-nighter. We’re going back through every hospital record, every bank statement, every text message.”
I opened the files and prepared to fight for my life all over again.
At five in the morning, my phone rang. It was the prosecutor.
“Bennett Shaw just turned himself in.”