All the members of the Dawson family were gathered around the table in the hall earmarked for the sit-down. The women sat with their husbands, they remained calm, waiting for the Don to incept the meeting by stating the purpose it was called.
Darian relaxed on his high chair, and Lena was taking time to enter the assembly hall. Her presence was very much needed before the meeting commenced.
Judson raised his hand, standing up before Darian permitted him. He looked from each couple to another and shook his head, returning his eyes to Darian, he said. "We have been here for some minutes, did you call us here for a staring competition?"
"I will launch the meeting soon, we are waiting for someone." Darian retorted, looking towards the door to check if Lena was close, but he didn't see her.
He wondered if she had run away. She was against the whole idea of coming with him to the meeting.
He motioned to one of the bodyguards, whispering into his ears. He hoisted his head up and his eyes met with Lena, she was walking elegantly into the hall like she owned the place.
Her knee-length red dress screamed danger, and her boots slapping heavily against the hardwood floor stunned everyone. She walked directly to the front, crouching on a high chair that was the closest to Darian. His lips twitched in a smile when she exchanged a glance with him.
"We will start the meeting now," Darian declared to them, gazing carefully at their faces as they watched him with utmost interest. "There was a case that happened recently at the casino and my wife was wrongly accused of it."
"It wasn’t a wrong accusation. She did it!" Judson countered from where he was seated.
"We will find out the truth," Darian riposted, staring back at Lena and signalling to her to calm her nerves.
Lena smiled, she understood the signals her husband was making at her. She noted them, completely ignoring Judson.
She looked around the room and saw Talia who was seated close to Gaius, they both had their eyes on her. She swallowed hard, nervously biting her bottom lips as she bowed to acknowledge them.
Gaius gave her a small smile that didn't show hatred while Talia just nodded her head, Lena could see guilt assaulting her expression, she smiled and returned to her husband who was still addressing the family.
"Jay, please can you step forward with the evidence that we have?" Darian asked Jay, gesturing for him to come forward. Jay didn't hesitate before climbing the small steps to where Darian was. "Please play this on the screen," he said.
Jay bowed his head, he switched on the laptop, connecting the device to the projector. He waited for the videos to download and then he began to explain.
"There was a lady on the run immediately after the incident that day. We didn't discover her on time, but we did after ma'am Talia gave us the full name of all the staff members who work at the casino." He stared into her face and smiled. "When we met her, we got to know that she was in the casino on the game day but left before the game ended. We trailed her with the information we got in her resume, but we couldn't get through to her, we didn't stop at that. The investigation team and I continued to search for her until we found her whereabouts two weeks ago." He displayed the picture of a dilapidated house on the screen.
"She's been hiding in that house since she left the casino that day. Fortunately, we got to her, but unfortunately, we met her in this state." The picture of Nessa's lifeless body appeared on the screen. "But she left a letter confessing to all her atrocities before she died." Jay raised the letter to the air, "Through this, we were able to detect the fact that she was the one who poisoned Gaius' drink because she used the same poison for herself." He finished and stepped down.
Some of the women who knew Nessa at the casino shook their heads in pity, the hall was filled with humming sounds and groanings. Then a hand suddenly flew up and before they knew it, Judson was standing on his feet.
"How can we believe this when she's dead?" He scoffed, clapping his hands disgustingly. "It's only people who are lying who refer to their evidence as dead. I do not buy this lie, Darian. If everyone here will be so gullible to believe what you've cooked out with your bodyguard, I refuse to." He said firmly, glaring at Lena who had a smile playing on her lips.
She expected that, she knew well that Gaius would oppose her. That was how mean he was towards her.
"How dare you accuse me of such a thing, Judson?" Darian growled. "I will never support injustice. I always stand with the truth, it doesn't matter if Lena is my wife, I will never have her back if she was involved in the poisoning of Gaius." He said, raising his voice above its usual pitch.
"So, why do you have a dead witness if you are not lying?" Judson snickered. "You call yourself a man of principle, yet you let your wife, who is a criminal, leave the dark room while investigations were still going on, didn't you?"
"I let her leave because she was sick, don't you get it? How inhumane can you be?" Darian shot at him.
He saw how Judson's wife got scared, she stared apologetically into Darian's eyes, she was sorry for her husband's misconduct.
"I will only believe this if we have concrete evidence, not some cooked-up ones." Judson looked around the room. "You all should not be deceived by this, I am certain these are lies. Darian paid that innocent girl to do this." He was disappointed when no one bought his ideas.
"There is a great suspicion that I feel towards Judson and his family and from today, I will assign men to investigate your family, your house and the things you do these days. I have to be sure you are not part of this whole thing, you seem like an enemy here." Darian said sternly.
"How dare you, Darian? How dare you wrongly accuse me, you asshole?" Judson slammed the table angrily.
"Watch your language, Judson. You can't disrespect the Don." Gaius finally chirped into the conversation.
"The Don?" Judson scoffed, "The Don disrespected me first but you don't see anything wrong with that?"
"Judson, if you keep on going like this, we will have no choice but to tag you as an enemy of the Dawson family," Gaius said in a calm voice. He got up with the help of Talia, gesturing to Judson to take his seat.
Judson scowled, and he begrudgingly sat down, waiting for Gaius to address them.
"Evidence was brought to the gathering, why are you doubting it if you don't have anything against Darian and his wife?" Gaius asked him.
"The evidence isn't solid enough." Judson protested.
"Judson, they have been on this case for weeks and they eventually found the real culprit, but you don't want to accept it because you have a grudge against Darian," Gaius said, the members of the family nodding their heads understandably to what Gaius was saying. "Now that we have evidence that Lena didn't poison my wine, I will want us to evaluate this carefully instead of judging because of a long-time grudge."
"There is another evidence," Darian informed them, smiling. "Nessa's phone was found in her bag, there were transactions and texts where she communicated with the people who sent her." Jay came forward to display the texts on the screen and the money paid into her account, and the purpose of payment. "The numbers are unreachable for now, but we are working on getting the people behind this whole act, I believe they are the ones behind the anniversary party attack. They will soon be apprehended and I am assuring you that as soon as they are caught, they will be brought to book. I won't spare any of them even though they turn out to be members of the Dawson family mafia." He stated frantically.
Lena smiled, she glimpsed the glunch in her husband's eyes. It was different when he was with her. The glunch was replaced with a smile and his voice was never this guttural whenever he was with her, she wished she could walk up to him and soothe him by placing a kiss on his cheek. He deserved that much for supporting her.
As if on cue, Darian's eyes trailed the room and they landed on her. She smiled, but he didn't. He looked away from her and back to the crowd that was in front of him.
"What other thing do you want to discuss with us?" Judson asked Darian.
"There are other things," Darian squinted his eyes, glaring at Judson, he continued. "We are changing some of the rules here." He said and immediately all eyes turned to him. "Yes, I have thought carefully about it and I have decided to change some rules." Lena was surprised as well, he didn't discuss that with her beforehand.