He Saved the Heir, Then Won His Heart novel · Chapter 20 of 56
Chapter 20: First Hearing
The courtroom on the fourth floor was full by half past nine.
Reporters packed the back rows.
Mrs. Shen sat at the defence table in dove grey, with a black ribbon pinned to her lapel and one hand pressed to her pearls.
Shen Rui sat on her left with his face composed.
Behind them, in the gallery's second row, Chi Feng sat with his legs crossed and watched Xiao Chen come in.
Xiao Chen walked down the aisle with a bandage under his sleeve and a slight stiffness in his hip.
Shen Yan walked beside him, not behind.
"All rise," said the clerk.
The judge was a heavy woman in her sixties with a hard, unreadable face.
She sat down, put on her glasses, and looked at the motion on her bench.
"Counsel for Mrs. Shen asks that the testimony of Mr. Xiao be barred," she said. "On the grounds of a head injury and six months of unconsciousness. Counsel."
Mrs. Shen's lawyer rose.
He was a silver-haired man from Chi & Partners with an unhurried voice.
"Your Honour, the petitioner is a man who woke from a coma three weeks ago. He has no stable memory of the events he describes. His account has changed with every telling. We submit he is no witness at all."
"Mr. Xiao."
Xiao Chen stood.
"Your Honour, I have two answers. The first is my neurologist's report, filed Monday, which finds no memory impairment of any kind."
He lifted a folder.
"The second is simpler. Counsel says my account has changed with every telling. I have told it exactly once, in a hotel lobby, in front of two reporters and a man from the bar association."
A ripple ran through the gallery.
"The only person who has contradicted it," Xiao Chen said, "is not here to say what he remembers."
He did not look at the second row.
"Motion denied," said the judge. "Proceed."
The next hour was exhibits.
The drive, its files opened one by one on the big screen, Mr. Shen's real ledger in a column beside the forged one.
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