He Chose Her, So I Faked My Death novel · Chapter 29 of 32

Chapter 29: The Verdict

Imogen's POV

The trial took four months, and I carried the whole of it in front of me.

By the day I testified, the curve under my coat was impossible to hide.

The courtroom was full to the walls.

The mine families filled the left side, in their best clothes, holding photographs.

My brother sat in the second row behind the prosecutors.

Behind him sat my father, gray in the face, with a lawyer on each side.

Preston sat at the defense table in a plain suit that hung loose on him.

He did not look at me when I took the oath.

"State your name for the record," the prosecutor said.

"Imogen Radcliffe."

"Were you married to the defendant?"

"For five years, under the name Imogen Ames."

"Did you know he had purchased conflict diamonds from the Halcyon mine?"

"No. I learned it in his study, on our anniversary, from a safe I wasn't supposed to open."

The room was silent.

I told them about the papers with my name on them.

I told them about the four sheets in his handwriting, and the recordings, and the red dress.

I did not cry.

Then the prosecutor stepped closer.

"Miss Radcliffe, your own family's name is on the guarantee that financed the purchase. Did you know that?"

"I found out in the rain, in the middle of a fight with the man I love."

"Why did you hand the ledger over anyway?"

"Because forty-one people died." My voice carried. "And seventy-one names are on a payroll list I can read in my sleep. If my family's name is on the paper, it goes on the court record next to Preston's."

My father made a small noise behind me.

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