My Fake Death Was The Punchline To His Cruel Joke Chapter 27
Breathe.
I looked at him, took a slow, deep breath, and let it out.
The opposing attorney approached the stand.
“Ms. Ortiz, if you suspected there might be walnut oil on the cake, why did you attend the party?”
“Because I needed to see, one last time, if Bennett would stop them.”
“So you knowingly placed yourself in danger.”
“I said no. I tried to leave.”
I looked at the jury.
“They dragged me back.”
The attorney opened another file.
“After the incident, you didn’t contact the police. Instead, you orchestrated an elaborate deception to make everyone believe you were dead. What you really wanted was revenge, correct?”
“What I really wanted was to get out alive.”
“But you made everyone think you had died.”
“The hospital never issued a death certificate, and I never forged a legal document.”
My voice was steady.
“The only reason they believed I was dead was because they knew, deep down, that what they had done was more than enough to kill me.”
The courtroom was silent.
The attorney’s face tightened, but he pressed on.
At that moment, Leo submitted the official record from Newport City Hall to the judge.
The words [No marriage record found] appeared on the large screen.
I had no legal husband.
I had one brother, authorized in writing to act on my behalf.
I had lawfully sealed my records, lawfully discharged myself from the hospital, and lawfully refused to disclose my location to the people who had harmed me.
The “faked death” narrative they had built their entire defense around crumbled to dust.
The judge dismissed every one of their arguments related to it on the spot.
When the court recessed for the day, no one at the defense table would meet my eyes.