"Do you solemnly swear on this Holy Bible to say the truth and nothing but the truth?"

"I do."

The moment she said those words, everything else became static in the court room. She could barely concentrate on anything else. There she was again, in that same courtroom, in front of those same people from six years back, at least the most of them. It made her really scared, and nervous.

"Olivia Silver," Olivia's hands trembled as soon as the Judge called her name. "You've been accused and charged with the first degree murder of your late husband, Mr Andrew Segun Silver, how do you plead?"

"Not guilty my Lord." Her voice broke at intervals.

They all had their eyes on her box like they had already predicted her fate. She could feel her heart racing. She had always dreamt so hard of her freedom but she never bothered to dream of herself relieving the moment that came before it.

Just as she stood there, in that box at the corner of the room, with those handcuffs on both her hands, in that blue jumpsuit that Amarachi had carefully washed and ironed for her, it felt like time had stopped for a minute. She could see Amy right there, cheering her on from the first row and right across her, she could see the Silvers, Victoria's glare boring a deep invincible hole on her forehead. All those years didn't do a number on her at all. She hadn't aged one bit for a fifty-five year old, neither did her choice in fashion. She still looked so graceful, so young and almost flawless.

If there was something else that didn't change, it was her long frown and her disgust for Olivia. Right beside her, she could see Austin. His eyes were glued on hers. He looked just like she remembered, calm, neat and a lot expensive in his three piece suit but none of them really mattered to her. The only person that did wasn't there at that moment.

Her daughter.

Olivia was looking forward to at least seeing her. If she wasn't ever going to win the case, a glimpse of what she looked like would have meant the world to her but she knew it wasn't fair to either of them. If her daughter knew she was alive, it wasn't fair for her to watch her stand in a box, being judged like a criminal.

Olivia sniffed the moment she heard a voice she was familiar with. Enough of the thinking, she knew it was time to fight. She slowly turned to Rafael who walked to her as fast as he could.

His wig and dress had nothing on him. Unlike other lawyers she knew, his looked so perfect on him that she had almost forgotten it was a uniform.

"Mrs Silver,"
He started, walking closer to her with a few sheets of paper in his hands. She glued her eyes to his face.

You don't have to be scared. As long as you're innocent, all you have to do is tell your side of the story honestly and let me figure the rest out.

Those were his exact words to her right before she entered that box. She was ready for that moment. She had spent the whole night before praying for all the strength and confidence she'd need.

Olivia exhaled

"Can you tell this court once again what really happened on the day your husband was murdered?"

She took a deep breath.

"It was on a Tuesday, the twenty third of February two thousand and thirteen. I had gotten into an argument with Andrew days before, six days before to be exact, and I was trying to avoid him in every way I could. I remember going to the hospital after I had one of my usual morning sicknesses that morning. I could barely keep anything down so I had to pay a visit to my doctor, who was also my friend, Amanda Joseph."

She hurriedly searched for Amanda in the tiny crowd. It didn't even take up to five seconds before she found her right behind the rest of them. She could see the tension in her eyes the moment their eyes met. She could see how nervous and uncomfortable she had suddenly become. Six years had changed her a lot. Maybe she wouldn't have looked so different if she had bothered to pay her a visit as years went by. Amanda slowly turned away. She was too nervous to let her eyes linger much longer.

"Then I got home after she had prescribed some drugs to help me curb it a little bit." Olivia slowly turned to Rafael. "I locked myself in the guest room for a while because like I said, I was trying to avoid Andrew and just as I was reading a book, I got a text from him asking me to join him downstairs for lunch."

Olivia sniffed.

She was so nervous, more nervous than she had ever expected she'd be. This was a story she had told over and over again but everytime she told it, it felt like the first time. It remained fresh in her memory. That day,

"And at that moment I knew what he was up to but I played along because I was afraid what he would have done if I hadn't. You see, it had become a tradition, more like a habit for Andrew to always try to make all our fights go away with romantic gestures and expensive gifts and he'd get really mad when I refused to cooperate with him. So I went to him, to the smaller dining room. He had invited this live band over and had prepared a beautiful table, a banquet. I just wanted to eat and do whatever he wanted. Everything was going fine until he asked where I was the whole morning and when I told him I had gone to run some errands, he called me a liar and got upset. We started another fight. He started hitting me again and when he stopped, I said a lot of hurtful things to him and -"

"What kind of hurtful things?" Rafael cut her off.

She looked at him. It was obvious he wanted her to get into every detail.

She exhaled.

"I called him a monster and I told him I was tired of it. I told him I was going to leave him and when he tried to stop me I-" she paused.

She knew how her next choice of words were going to sound. She needed time to herself to say it a couple times in her head.

"I picked up a knife to stop him."

Tiny murmurs began to fill the room. Her judgement had begun.

"I wasn't going to use it." She defended herself as she stared at him. "I was just scared at that moment and I wanted to protect myself. I was pregnant at that time too and so I knew I wasn't the only one I needed to protect."

"So you're saying you picked up that knife to protect yourself against your husband without intentions to kill him?"

"Yes."

"And from what you told the court earlier, it was a bread knife wasn't it?"

"It was." She nodded in agreement.

"Why?"
Olivia frowned for a second

"What?" She whispered.
She wasn't sure what he was trying to ask or where he was getting at.

Rafael let out a weak smile

"Let me make it easier for you. I'd rephrase." He continued. "You're being accused of swapping your late husband's pills with lethal pills that killed him, I'm asking why your husband needed those pills in the first place. What were those pills for?"

"They were anxiety pills." She said. "Andrew was mostly always stressed from his daily activities and it made him really anxious and angry sometimes so his doctors prescribed anxiety pills to help him control his emotions sometimes."

"Ariprazole. Was that the name of this pill?"

Olivia strained her eyes for a second. She tried so hard to remember.

"Y-yes it was. I was in charge of making sure he never missed a dosage so I know."

Rafael drew a deep breath
"What if I told you, you were lied to all those years?"

"L-lied to?"

"Objection my Lord!" Olivia's heart almost leaped from her mouth the moment Victoria's lawyer hit that table and stood up quickly on his feet.

He wished Rafael cared. He barely even noticed him.

"What if I told you Mrs Silver, that all the while you were married to your late husband, both him and his family had been lying to you about his mental state."

"Objection my Lord." Victoria's lawyer repeated "These questions are totally irrelevant to the case at hand. There's no solemn proof of any of this."

Rafael scoffed. He had barely even started and they were already trying to stop him.

"I'm worried myself barrister Rafael." The judge said turning to Rafael "What does these questions have to do with what the accused has been charged of?"

"If only Barrister philip would let me my Lord, " Rafael turned to the elderly woman in her early fifties. "I'm about to make my point known. "

"Which is?"

"If my client has really been accused of committing such a despicable crime and by such means, it's only safe to know if she had an idea what was in the bottle in the first place and why the victim ever needed those pills to begin with, that way, we can tell how she knew what pills to swap them with."

He exhaled.

"If you'd permit me my Lord, I have something to share with the court."

He took out a sheet and handed it to the man in a suit that walked towards him to get it. The Clerk slowly walked to the judge and handed it to her while Rafael took another copy to the other lawyer.

"My Lord, the diagram you can see in that sheet is a pictorial description of Ariprazole. Just that in this case, Ariprazole is not a medication to curb anxiety but it's an Antipsychotic medication prescribed to patients with extreme bipolar disorder."

What?

Olivia could hear herself scream out loud in her head. She wasn't sure she heard that right. She slowly turned to Rafael as he walked towards her

"I also have medical records from the deceased's personal doctor." He raised the last two sheets in the air so the court could see. Right before he turned back to Olivia "Mrs Silver, your husband didn't suffer from an anxiety disorder, he was a mental patient, Psychotic."

"My Lord!" The other lawyer called

"Language Barrister Okonkwo."

Rafael paused for a second.
"I'm sorry my Lord, I better rephrase." He cleared his throat and turned back to a confused Olivia.

"Your late husband suffered from bipolar disorder and his family hid it from you all these while because to them, it was better you were bait since you couldn't leave him anyway. That explains why he was always so insecure, why he always got home so mad and why he was abusive."

"Objection my Lord, mere speculation-"

"And that was why they never bothered to question him or stop him when he treated you that way. That was why they had you personally administer those drugs to him because-"

"Objection my Lord!"

"Because they were so terrified to deal with it on their own."

"My Lord!"

"Sustained." The judge announced. Rafael paused. "I'm still not seeing where you're going with all of this Barrister Okonkwo."

"It all boils down to one question my Lord." Rafael turned to the courtroom "How on earth could my client have been able to swap the victim's pills when she had no idea what she was swapping in the first place? According to evidence from the case before, the pills that were used to swap the original ones in the bottle were an exact replica. You should have at least some knowledge about what kind of drugs to mix or the kind of drug you're trying to replicate don't you think? My client as you can see, has no such knowledge of what was in that bottle in the first place, not to talk of making one that is just as exact as it was."

Olivia held her breath

"What does this tell you? She didn't make those clone pills let alone alone swap them. According to evidence, witnesses and testimonies, The deceased always took his pills at exactly six pm, six-fifteen tops and he never exceeded a second. Secobarbital, the pill which was said to have been replaced with the deceased's original pills, kills in a couple minutes, an hour tops. Now if my client was said to have been seen leaving the house at exactly four- thirty five pm just as confirmed with her check in time at the motel where she was arrested, and if the deceased had taken his pills at exactly six-fifteen, just as his maids confirmed they had watched him do six years ago, then his time of death should have exactly been before seven thirty,"

"But why was my client arrested at nine-forty five? Exactly Forty five minutes before the deceased was confirmed dead? If I remember correctly, his time of death was confirmed to be somewhere between eight forty-five to nine o' clock. This can only mean one thing. It's either something is wrong with all the evidence and stories of the family of the deceased, or the pill was swapped and administered to the deceased again, after my client had left the house. whatever the case may be, I wonder, I really do because never in my whole life have I ever seen a case of someone being at two places at the same time. What exactly is the truth? Something about this whole story doesn't add up your honor and I suggest we look into it carefully so this young lady who has lost six years of her life for a crime she didn't commit, wouldn't have to suffer an extra minute because of the incompetencies of the law, our law."

He slowly turned to Olivia
She was just sitting there, too amazed and excited to even move a muscle. For some reason there was this light in her heart. A light she thought was dead six years ago. It was hope. Hope in form of this man standing right in front of her, looking right through her.

For some reason she got the strength she was hoping for. It came rushing into her all of a sudden from nowhere. She had never been so grateful.

Rafael slowly took his eyes away from her.

"That would be all for now my Lord."

He slowly walked to the empty seat in front of the crowd, close to that which his assistant sat in.

"Good job."
The skinny lady in a suit whispered to him.

The entire court room was quiet for a long while. He had definitely made them so speechless. Rafael could see how Victoria and her lawyer got so uncomfortable all of a sudden with the way he flipped through the file in front of him in total confusion. It made him smile a little bit.

"Susan,"

He slowly turned to the lady beside him.

"I need a favor." He whispered to her.