Chapter 227: The Fight That Is For You, We’ll Shine

[FROLO]

"You hurt my husband. You stole his smiles... all... all those fucking times he trusted you. He believed you. He let you cut through him THRICE before that, and for what?

"Answer me!!!!!!" Yaroslav insisted, pressing hard.

And soon enough, he grabbed the man from the witness stand, leaving the court officials in the most dangerous of conditions.

If they touched him, Sergei would kill them without question.

But they needed to stop him.

Milan stepped forward and went to pull him back, but he just snapped his hand from her hold, making the woman fall down on her butt in front of everyone who was watching in shock.

Yaroslav could hear the court marshal screaming orders and the judges shouting for order, too, but he was way past order.

And when he had the surgeon on the floor, ready to throw the first actual punch at the man who had slowly started turning blue, citrus filled the room.

Of course...

Katya Romanov to the rescue, again.

The intensity of the citrus in the room was so suffocating for everyone that Yaroslav let out growls again. Katya just smiled at him when their eyes met.

He showed his hand to him, as if summoning him, as if begging him silently to come to him.

Between jealousy and murder, Yaroslav’s heart lost the battle.

And everyone across Frolo... including the senator, watched as Yaroslav’s dilated pupils went back to normal and he walked back to where Katya was seated like someone who was trying to figure out where he was.

The judges sighed as Rahim and Volkov cleansed the air of Katya’s citrus scent. It took them five minutes with the diffusers, and everyone watched in surprise. It was as if they were ready for everything that was bound to happen.

"Witness, take your stand," Justice Hoffman said, surprising everyone. Anyone could have insisted that the court take a break, but if they took a break, who knew whose head would stay on their necks in the next five minutes?

The surgeon coughed hard, his blood spilling while the professor and the therapist stared in horror as if they were finally realising the fate that they were bound for. Gods, this bus to hell was doomed.

Prosecutor Rostova stared at the doctor, sighed, and continued her cross examination on the wounded doctor. There wasn’t time for any further considerations anyway.

"Doctor, how did you convince the rest of the operating team that the fetus had died?"

"I announced fetal arrest... one resident asked if it was verified, and I dismissed him from the theatre for compromising the sterile field."

"So every surgeon present believed the child had died naturally?"

"Yes. Because I lied."

"What cause of fetal death did you record?"

"Spontaneous miscarriage."

"Was that true?"

"No."

"Then what was the actual reason?"

"Medical intervention," the surgeon said as he looked at the courthouse, then added, "mine."

"Why?"

"I’d already been paid. Had to keep my end of the bargain I made."

"How much?"

"Enough to betray everything I’d spent so many years building."

"No further questions, your honours," the prosecutor said before she walked back to her seat.

The surgeon was ready to step down and catch a breather when Justice Hoffman spoke.

"Doctor Hamid, you’ve repeatedly referred to the fetus as the fetus. Not a child. When exactly did you stop seeing that heartbeat as a transaction instead of a life?"

The surgeon didn’t answer, just kept his head bowed in shame as everything erupted around him.

"Doctor Milena Belyaeva," the court officer called the therapist, repeating the same procedure as with the surgeon and the professor. And when she was done taking the oath, the court officer stepped aside and let the prosecutor deal with her.

"State your name and profession," an exhausted Justice Orlov said.

"Doctor Milena Belyaeva, clinical psychologist and trauma specialist. Practiced for sixteen years so far."

"Proceed, prosecutor."

Prosecutor Rostova grabbed a thicker file from her table and walked toward the therapist, gently placing it on the podium as if she needed support for this cross-examination.

"Doctor Belyaeva, do you recognize this file?"

"Yes... It’s Chairman Romanov’s therapy file."

Yaroslav growled lowly again. And Katya stared at everyone as if to tell them that he had this under control, again.

"How long was Chairman Romanov your patient?"

"Four years and eleven months."

"During those years, how frequently did you see him?"

"Weekly... Sometimes twice a week and on worse days, emergency sessions."

Oh, how Masha’s heart broke for her only child.

"Approximately how many sessions?"

"Three hundred and twelve sessions."

"Three hundred and twelve opportunities to help him?"

"...Yes."

Then the prosecutor opened the file, and everyone could swear the therapist froze in her spot.

"Your notes on session thirteen state: Patient believes his inability to carry a child makes him less of an omega... Did you write that?"

"Yes."

"Was it true? And did you tell him otherwise?"

"No."

"Session thirty-one says: Patient repeatedly apologizes for destroying his husband’s future. Did you write that?"

"Yes... It wasn’t true."

Yaroslav was losing his shit.

Oh, he was so close to snapping again.

And for the first time since he had started reacting to the court, Svet and Andre looked at the Beta like they would step up if he didn’t make it up there and strangle the shit out of that doctor.

"Did you correct him?"

"No."

"Session fifty-seven: Patient says Mr. Gamov deserves someone capable of giving him children." Did you know at the time that Chairman Romanov had never been infertile?"

"...Yes."

"Yet you allowed him to continue believing he had ruined his marriage."

"...Yes."

"Session one hundred and five: Patient wonders if love alone is enough when he cannot build a family. Did you write that?"

"...Yes."

"Doctor Belyaeva... what did you tell him?"

"That acceptance was part of healing."

"Acceptance of what?"

"...His infertility," her lips trembled.

"An infertility that never existed."

"...Yes."

Every question from the prosecutor that related to the notes was like a stab to Katya’s heart.

"How many times did Chairman Romanov ask you, ’Why can’t I carry my children?"

"...Twenty-three."

"What answer did you give him each time?"

"I told him sometimes life isn’t fair."

"Did you ever once tell him, ’This wasn’t your fault..."

"No... Because if he questioned the diagnosis, everything would’ve collapsed."

Yaroslav suddenly let out a broken, empty laugh, making everyone turn to him.

"He asked you... Twenty-three times?" and the therapist didn’t answer. Instead, she stayed with a bowed head, and when Yaroslav didn’t press, the prosecutor continued.

"Doctor Belyaeva, did Chairman Romanov ever blame himself for Mr. Gamov’s affair?"

"...Yes, repeatedly."

This time, it was Andre who growled, and Yaroslav keened and removed his hand from Katya’s like he knew the tables were about to be flipped real bad. The city may have had a reputation for suffering when they came at him.

But Svet and Andre didn’t give two shits about the fear of beating Yaroslav that had been spread across the city. They would beat him black and blue harder than he had strangled the surgeon earlier.

"Did you know that guilt influenced his decision to keep enduring the marriage silently?"

"...Yes."

"Did you ever tell him he deserved the truth?"

"...No."

"Did you ever encourage Mr. Romanov to seek a second medical opinion?"

"No, because we would’ve been exposed."

And of course, the courtroom erupted again, and the court marshal barely managed to keep order.

Justice Reginia removed her glasses and looked at the woman before her, disappointment written all over her face.

"Professor Sorokin lied to medical records, Doctor Hamid lied inside an operating theatre. And you... You lied inside the only room where your patient believed he was safe?" she asked.

The therapist began crying, but Justice Reginia didn’t give two shits about that.

"When he cried, blamed himself, and mourned children that he believed nature had taken from him, did you comfort him?"

Doctor Belyaeva didn’t answer.

So Reginia continued.

"Tell this court, doctor, which crime should we consider the cruelest? The lie that killed a child... children... or the lie that forced a parent to spend five years believing they deserved to lose that child?"

Again, the doctor didn’t answer, instead turned to crying like that would save her from all this.

Did she deserve it, though?

"This Court will stand in recess for fifteen minutes. The witnesses are to remain under judicial custody. We’ll resume with the remaining examination," the Chief Justice said as the last witness got off the stand.

"All rise," the court officer said as the judges rose from the bench.

And then the judges stepped out...

The court erupted, again.

This time, the court marshal didn’t have to ask them to be in order...

Thankfully.