"I believed in you. I rooted for you. I thought you were the one who would make Desmond happy by giving him a child, who would build a future with him. I treated you like my own daughter. But you. You had nothing but greed and deceit in your heart. You planned all of this. You wanted to ruin this family and take everything my son worked so hard for." Mrs. Elizabeth said, and Daniella gave a nonchalant shrug.
"You don't have to keep wasting your energy ranting. It won't change anything. Let’s just say I knew how to play my cards. Life is a game, Mrs. Elizabeth. I played, and I played well."
At this point, Bella stepped forward. "You think you played well? Wait until the end of today, Daniella. You will find out who played better. Spoiler alert: it won’t be you. You will leave this building with nothing but tears." She said, and Daniella threw her head back and laughed. "You are delusional! The law is on my side. You can’t cheat your way out of this if that is what you people are planning to do, and your money can’t save you. By the time this is over, half of everything Desmond owns will be mine. Including that costly car parked over there."
"You keep telling yourself that, Daniella. Confidence is a good look on you, but it’s going to make your fall even harder." Bella said.
"It's okay!" Desmond spoke up, silencing everyone. "Let her say whatever she wants. I didn't come here to exchange words with lowlifes. It's a waste of energy and time. It’s time to go inside."
His mother looked like she wanted to say more, but she bit her tongue and nodded. Bella, on the other hand, kept her gaze locked on Daniella. Desmond led the way into the building, and his mother and sister followed closely behind.
Daniella and Leonard stood back for a moment, watching them stride inside. Leonard gave her a nudge. "They are just trying to rattle you. Don’t let them get under your skin."
"Rattle me?" Daniella chuckled. "Please. Let them dream. Their confidence will shatter soon enough."
With that, she adjusted her blazer and took Leonard’s arm. Together, they followed them into the courthouse. Little did Daniella know, the game she thought she had won was already slipping through her fingers. And the truth waiting for her inside those courtroom walls would change everything.
.
.
.
Daniella entered with Leonard by her side, her head held high. Her confidence was practically radiating from her sharp movements.
She had been waiting for this day, and now that it had finally arrived, she was eager to savor her impending victory. Her barrister, Mrs. Samantha, greeted her with a nod, holding a thick folder of carefully organized documents that Daniella believed would be the key to her victory.
On the other side of the room, Desmond sat with his mother and his younger sister. He looked calm, as if the gravity of the situation didn’t weigh on him at all. There was no lawyer beside him, no legal team scrambling to defend his case. He doesn't need to have one since he have what would settle everything.
Daniella noticed this immediately, and her lips curled into a small smirk. She leaned slightly toward Leonard and whispered, "Did you see that? No lawyer. He knows he doesn’t stand a chance. Hiring one would have been a waste of money."
Leonard chuckled quietly and replied, "You are right. He has already accepted defeat."