Chapter 10: Preparing for War
Chapter 10: Preparing for War
Once the doctors deemed her physically stable, Elara was discreetly discharged from the hospital through a subterranean loading dock at midnight. She was immediately moved into a highly secure, undisclosed safehouse on the desolate outskirts of the city, protected around the clock by a rotation of heavily armed US Marshals. The District Attorney, a sharp, unyielding, fiercely intelligent woman named Sarah Vance—known for tearing corrupt politicians apart on the stand—visited her the very next morning.
"They are going to drag you through the absolute worst kind of mud, Elara," Vance warned, pacing the small, sparsely furnished living room, her sharp heels clicking ominously on the hardwood floor. "Arthur Sterling is spending tens of millions to ruin your reputation. In that courtroom, his defense team will question your character, your past, your sanity, and your motives. They will aggressively try to break you down until you look like the crazy, hysterical aggressor. I need to know, right now: can you handle the stand under that kind of fire?"
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Elara walked slowly over to the reinforced, bullet-resistant window, looking at her reflection in the glass against the gray sky. The purple and black bruises on her face were slowly fading into yellowish-green hues, but the fire in her eyes burned brighter and hotter than ever before.
"He beat me until I coughed blood in a soundproof room while Mozart played softly in the hallway," Elara said quietly, turning back to face the DA with a chillingly calm expression. "I survived him in the dark when nobody was looking. I promise you, I can survive his lawyers in the light."
