The Dark Side Of Fate by Karima Sa'ad Usman

161 Sentencing

~Sylvester~

The people in the hall were confused when Larry started laughing. It seemed to them that he had lost his mind, but I knew better. He had a lot of things up his sleeves, but I was ready for him.

"Your Majesty, I accept I committed treason against your father and against you, but you know why. Your father and his officers took advantage of my fiancée, who was pregnant with my child back then and destroyed her life. The woman ended up committing suicide. For people with a harem and unlimited access to beautiful women, why take mine?" He asked, and everyone was silent.

"I will bear the punishment for my crimes if you have the heart to convict your mother and half- brother for treason, too," He said and looked at everyone.

"Is that not what a king should do? He should be impartial and dish out justice regardless of who it might affect. Our King here knows his mother's part in the death of his father and his officers; he knows his mother invited councilwoman Jenny to her home and killed her to hide her secret; he also knows that his half-brother, Vino, who is Jenny and Marcel's son was part of my team. Yet he hid them away and condemned others. How is this a fair judgement? This is the very reason why the Volkovs are feared and hated. They abuse their power and abuse the law. Yes, he is King, which puts him above all of us, but should he not be accountable to his people? If he loves his subjects, he should go out of his way to make them understand why. I will gladly take my punishment if he does the right thing." Larry said, and I was flabbergasted by the audacity he had to think he still had a choice in this, but he had laid down serious allegations, which I expected, and it was time to tackle them.

"Very well then. However, I will state it now that you do not have any choice in the matter and will be punished accordingly, regardless of how your feel or your will.

I will humour and respect my subjects by attending to the matter you have spoken of," I said. Just then, enforcer Bryce walked Lucas Sidorov into the hall.

People began to scream, believing they had seen a ghost.

Larry's eyes widened. He was unconscious when we took Lucas from his house in Gad, so he might have believed we did not get him. After all, he had hidden the man in a hidden storage room. Had we not been thorough, we wouldn't have found him.

"Calm down, everyone," Leo said and banged the gavel.

I saw Vino laugh a bit. I could understand his amusement because that used to be his job, and seeing his reaction showed he did not like it much. Neither did Leo because he was a bit short.

"Are you still making claims, Larry?" I asked the man, and he was silent.

"Larry here confessed to us that he drugged my father and his officers to force them to misbehave; then he fed Sir Lucas stories that would tip him off. There was a fight in the inn where they lodged, and Sir Lucas ended up as the winner, with my father and Sir Gavin dead.

Alpha Devin walked in on him, and Sir Lucas was too afraid to return, so he asked Devin to claim the kill. Devin reluctantly agreed. Unfortunately for Sir Lucas, Larry's men were lying in wait.

They took him while he was trying to leave. Larry has kept Sir Lucas with him since then, torturing and maltreating him for the crime he claimed they committed against his lover.

As for Jenny, she was a part of his team, and she tricked her son into joining them by working on his vulnerability and using Amanda Richford to get him on her team.

They later found out he wasn't useful to them because all he ever wanted was to be recognised by his true family. He could not leave because of the implications, so he remained trapped.

Amanda's pregnancy did not help matters either. When he decided to come to me, Larry instructed Amanda to kill him; we rescued him from Amanda.

If we had not located them on time, he would have been another dead body added to Larry's belt.

As for my mother and Jenny, Jenny had been blackmailing my mother for years over an anonymous letter she sent to Devin out of desperation. Although she warned Devin of what she believed was my father's intentions in the south, she never asked Devin to kill him. Councilman Corrigan never got the letter, so it isn't admissible today.

Jenny visited my mother with enforcers to kill her, and she had to defend herself. We decided to keep it quiet to investigate what was happening. I hope all I have said is enough to satisfy all your curiosity," I said, and everyone was silent as should be. The last part was a lie but tied up nicely, and none was the wiser.

Larry looked at me and realised he wasn't going to win.

"If you think I am your problem, then you should have a rethink, your Majesty. I am just a pawn in a wide game. A desperate man that went on an adventure to seek revenge. I sought out power and resources to carry out my plans. I might have failed, but the next one won't. I am not alone." Larry said, and I laughed. I knew he was trying to scare us so he could remain alive. If I believed him, I won't let him die just in case I needed information to battle the 'one' that would come. The man was a joke, and he was pathetic.

"It is sad that you did all you did and destroyed many lives because of a lie," Sir Lucas Sidorov said to him, and Larry was angry.

"Don't you dare call Emily a liar," He said with rage, and I could see he truly believed what the woman had told him.

"You threw away your life seeking revenge for a woman that did not love you. Did you not think of Michelle?" Lucas asked him, and Larry faltered a bit.

"That woman would be mateless and may be killed for your transgressions. What was her crime in all this? " Lucas asked him, and Larry bowed his head.

I guess he did not realise the lives that he had destroyed. Michelle was his wife; she should die with him under normal circumstances because she was his family.

"Emily lied to you, Larry. The King told me everything you told them, and I can tell you here that she lied to you," he said, and Larry shook his head.

He wanted to believe he was right so badly that he did not want to listen, but Lucas continued to speak regardless.

"She invited herself to the estate. You weren't around, and she decided to pay us a visit. She wanted Maurice, and you know how he is. She came about two times. The third time she visited was during our parties. She drank the northern cocktail as if it were Liquor. We told her to ease off the stuff she could not handle, but she took it more like a dare than a warning.

If she was pregnant, she did not want to keep it because she knew that pregnant women should not consume alcohol. She wanted Maurice, Larry, and everyone knew it.

You should have investigated the women in our harem then.

We had let some of them go by then. You should have spoken to them. They would have told you what happened that night.

We drank so much and woke up under the sheets together. Neither of us could tell who touched her and who didn't.

There were other girls with us in the sheets. While Maurice, Gavin and I were remorseful, Emily wasn't. She wanted to remain. I believe she thought becoming the lady of the north will be as easy as fucking the lord himself.

Maurice was courting Stephanie then and did not want anything to happen to his relationship. She was asked to leave that morning. She returned severally until Maurice banned her from entering the estate. This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

I do not know why she would lie to you, but you should have been wise enough to tell the difference.

You were Maurice's friend, and you knew him. You knew me too, and we would never take advantage of a woman like that, however pretty she may be. There was never a need to, especially when we had an unlimited supply of women.

Emily was depressed because her schemes could not carry her far. She was rejected and did not want to settle for what she believed was less. I do not know why she would ask you to avenge her, but I deduced from all this that Emily was wicked, and you allowed her to use you." Lucas said, and Larry was silent for a long time. Slowly I heard him sobbing.

It was painful to find out he had been lied to and that all of his efforts were for nothing. Everyone was silent.

"Do you still have anything to say?" I asked Larry, and he shook his head. I guess it would take a bit for all to sink in.

I approved his sentencing, and Bryce took him away. Gaston, Neil, and Jacob were next.

"Gaston and Jacob, because you were not directly involved with anyone's death, I am sentencing you to fifty years in prison to reflect on your actions. Hopefully, you will make peace with yourselves

in the process. During your sentencing, you will be isolated from everyone." I said, and an enforcer led them away.

Neil was brought forward for his sentence.

"Unfortunately, Neil, I will not be sparing your life. You have not only been directly involved in deaths, but you have been unremorseful about your actions. You challenged my authority in the hall. You will never atone for your crimes, and because of that, you will die in silver, eastern style," I said, and people wondered what I meant by it.

"You will be placed in a bath of silver dust until your life is no more," I said, and people gasped at the brutality of his death. He deserved it. The man was a weasel. I knew Larry would die eventually with the punishment he was given. Still, I wanted Neil dead immediately because he was the one that passed the tax laws and had packs attack in my name. I have learned that Larry never really instructed them on what to do. They were just given a goal, and their methods were entirely up to them. Neil Peakman had no regard for life.

"Jake is grateful for the justice," my mother linked me, and I looked where she sat with her lover and Vino. Jake bowed his head slightly to show gratitude.