THE HEIR'S REVENGE

chapter 86

I woke up on Monday morning at five thirty without an alarm. Before I could step out, I took a deep sigh. The room was still dark so it allowed me some time to do some reflection.

I had slept better than I thought I would even though I had woken up two times in the night but apart from that, I do feel relieved.

I got up and went to the bathroom, I didn't want to overthink this morning so I decided to replace intruding thoughts with actions.

I got up and went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror while the water ran cold over my hands.

I looked older than nineteen.

Not in a bad way. It just meant that for a while, I've had a lot in my head and I was still unsettled about a lot of things.

I got dressed carefully.

Not the way I had dressed for the Sunday coffee dates where I changed my shirt three times because I was nervous in a way I did not want to admit.

Just carefully. I wasn't dressing because I wanted to look good but because I wanted to be confident.

The dark suit Henry had laid out the evening before. The white shirt. The tie that I still was not entirely comfortable with but had learned to manage.

I looked at myself in the mirror one more time.

Then I went downstairs.

Lily was already at the breakfast table.

She was not supposed to be up this early. Her school did not start until eight thirty and it was barely six. But she was there in her school uniform with her rabbit on the chair beside her and a bowl of cereal in front of her that she was not eating. She was just sitting with her hands in her lap looking at the table.

She looked up when I came in. I wondered why she was up this early and thought maybe she had an early class.

She looked at my suit for a moment.

Then she looked at my face but she did not say anything.

I sat down across from her.

Mrs Park appeared from the kitchen side and put a plate of toast and a cup of coffee in front of me without being asked. She looked at me briefly with the expression she had sometimes that said everything without saying anything. Then she went back to the kitchen.

Lily and I sat in the quiet kitchen together.

I ate some toast even though I was not very hungry because I knew I needed something in my stomach. Lily picked up her spoon and moved her cereal around the bowl without eating it.

After a while she put the spoon down.

She reached across the table and took the purple ribbon that had been tied around her own wrist since her birthday party. She had been wearing it for weeks. She had replaced it twice when the first one got worn but she always had one on. Purple. Always.

She untied it carefully.

She reached across the table and took my hand and tied it around my wrist instead.

She did not look up while she was tying it. She concentrated on the knot the way she concentrated on everything. Making sure it was right. Making sure it would hold.

When she was done she looked up at me. She did not explain it. She did not need to. I mean I understood her perfectly and I was grateful that I had her by my side.

I looked at the purple ribbon on my wrist, then I looked at her.

"Thank you," I said.

She went back to her cereal and didn't say anything.

She actually ate it this time. It was weird watching Lily not talk. I mean Lily was a talker, she loved talking and that was why she was.

Henry was in the hallway by six forty five.

He was dressed in the formal version of himself. The suit he wore for serious occasions. The one that was slightly darker than his usual suits and that he kept specifically for days that required that particular level of formality.

Why did it seem like everyone was suddenly serious since today.

He looked at me when I came downstairs with my jacket on and did not say anything for a moment.

Then he said: "Are you ready?"

"Yes," I said.

He nodded once. "Then let us go."

The car was waiting outside. Brandon was standing beside it. He was in his work clothes with his earpiece in and his full security posture on. He opened the car door when he saw me.

It's been a while I've seen Brandon but the fact that he was here, right here, supporting me even by just bring present meant a lot to me.

"Everything is in place," he said quietly. "Route is clear. Team is at the courthouse already."

"Thank you Brandon," I said.

I got in the car.

Henry got in beside me.

We pulled out through the Blackwell gates and into the Monday morning city.

The courthouse was on the east side of the city. I remember that I had driven past here before without even thinking about it or ever thinking that I'd one day show my face.

It was a big building that has been here for such a long time, the exact kind of building that must have experienced so many great and important occasions.

When we arrives, I want surprised to see that people were outside and they weren't normal people.

They were press, journalists, camera and then people who had come to watch and possibly gossip.

The story was everywhere given the fact that Clara Mensah's article had been published and now the world knew the full shape of it and everyone wanted to see what happened next.

Brandon's team moved with fast efficency thru made a path for me from the car to the building entrance and made sure no one touched me.

I walked through without much hassle even though some of these people wanted a piece of me. I didn't look at the Camera, there was no need to. After all, all the answers they were throwing at me would be responded to.

I just walked.

Inside was calmer.

The security check. The marble corridor. The particular indoor silence of a building that is doing something important and knows it.