Ten minutes was barely enough break for her. Olivia could count how many deep breaths she had taken the very second the judge stepped back into the room.

Breathe.

She could see Amy mouth from where she sat in the crowd. Olivia followed her illustration. She needed all the air she could get at that point.

She turned to where Rafael sat, looking into the large file in front of him. He didn't seem to be half as nervous as she was or was he just very good at hiding how he felt? He looked so busy. Olivia couldn't help but wonder what was going through his head at that point. The more she looked at him, the more the rumors about his genius became clearer. She was amazed at the kind of man the man she was staring at was. Just how far was he willing to go? How amazing was he?

"Ms. Silver."

Olivia's thoughts were cut short the moment Victoria's lawyer walked up to her with his hands folded firmly behind his back and his eyes resting right on her face. She turned to him.

"How long have you been married to the deceased?"

"Two years before his death." Olivia answered honestly. "Our anniversary was supposed to be the following week."

"Is it safe to say your marriage was a happy one?"
Olivia paused for a second

"Huh?"

The man smirked and then paused for a while. He continued.

"I'm asking if you were happy with your marriage Ms. Silver?"

"All marriages have their ups and downs."

"But that wasn't the answer to my question though."
The smirk on his face grew wider. Olivia exhaled. She just wasn't sure how else he wanted her to answer that. She wasn't sure what he wanted her to say in front of all those people.

"Ms. Silver," the man continued raising a brow. "Can you tell this court what happened that night in Nairobi after the AMA's?"

"Objection my Lord." Rafael announced lazily, his eyes still focused in the journal in front of him.

"My Lord," the man quickly turned to the judge "I'm trying to understand the kind of relationship the accused had with the deceased, that way, we can be able to establish, a reason why she tried to kill him in the first place-"

"Objection my Lord." Rafael repeated

"Let me rephrase my Lord. That way, we'd be able to establish a possible motive for murder."

"Sustained." The judge announced. "You May continue Barrister Phillip. Go ahead."

"Thank you my Lord."

Rafael had his eyes glued to his file. Anyone would think he was barely paying any attention to what was happening and for some reason, it frightened Olivia. The thought that the lawyer in front of her was doing all he could to remind her of the parts from her past she just wanted to forget, frightened her.

"Just in case you didn't hear me before Ms. Silver, I asked what happened between you and your husband on the night of the AMA awards. Some witnesses say they saw you both leave early and from the look of things, it was like you both had just had a fight."

"Nothing happened besides the usual." Olivia continued. She wasn't going to let this lawyer make her lose her confidence. "Andrew saw me talking to a mentor, he got upset and accused me of flirting around, we went back to the hotel room before he started a scene."

"And what happened when you went back to the hotel room?"

"He hit me a few times and called me a slut and then he forced himself on me." Olivia rushed her words quickly, hoping no one had actually heard that. Rafael froze for a second.

He heard her, and he knew what she meant by it. He slowly raised his head to meet hers.

"When you say he forced himself on you, do you mean he raped you?"

Olivia shut her eyes for a second. She could tell Victoria was sneering as loudly as she could from the crowd and Austin looked away like he didn't want to hear anymore.

"Did your husband rape you Ms. Silver?"

"Objection my Lord."  Rafael tried to stop him.

"Sustained." The judge said

"My Lord this is a really sensitive subject that does not need to be addressed in court." Rafael continued

"It would only take a minute my Lord." The lawyer interrupted.

Olivia bit hard on her lip. For a second she felt so helpless. It was like all the air in the room wasn't enough for her anymore. She felt so embarrassed especially with the way everyone in the room began to whisper to themselves now.

"Please answer the question Ms. Silver." The judge told Olivia.

"Yes." Olivia blurted out, trying to hold back the tears in her eyes but it was almost impossible now.

Rafael held his breath.
God, she had never felt so humiliated in her life. She just wanted the ground to open and take her in at that moment.

"So you're saying the victim, who also happened to be your husband was not only a woman beater but a rapist too?"

Olivia didn't answer. She just couldn't.

"That's enough reason to want him dead."

"What? No."

"My lord, I think we have a motive here."

"Objection my Lord ." Rafael got up quickly

"My Lord, the accused here just confirmed that she was abused a number of times by her husband. This must have been her motive to want to kill him."

"No." Olivia's voice was shaky just as the crowd began to talk too.

"We've seen a lot of cases like this my Lord, this is more than enough reason for the accused to commit such a crime." He quickly turned to Olivia "Just admit it."

He walked up to her

"No." Olivia whispered, shaking her head continuously as tears began to fall from her eyes.

"You loved him at first, you loved all the benefits you were getting from being one of them, from being a Silver. A poor orphan, who had lost both parents in a car accident and lived all her life being cared for by the Silvers, it must have been so much of a big deal when he asked you to marry him, you just couldn't wait to jump at the opportunity."

"No." Olivia kept shaking her head. He was wrong. It wasn't the truth.

"Objection my Lord." Rafael announced again, pushing forward to stop him from talking but he was really persistent.

"The first few months was bliss and then later into the marriage you began to see him for what he truly was, an abuser and it made you hate him." The lawyer continued "Admit it."

"No-"

"You wanted to leave and you knew he wasn't going to let you so you decided to take a short cut out by ending him permanently, making him pay for what he did to you, for hitting you and raping you-"

"I didn't do it , I didn't kill him-"

"My Lord, Please stop Barrister Philip from verbally battering my client or he should be held in contempt for misconduct in the court room."

"That's enough Barrister Philip, let her be." The judge warned the lawyer who just stood still, glaring at Olivia with the most evil smile on his lips. Olivia was trying so hard to stop herself from crying her eyes out but she just couldn't stop

"You're a tough one to crack Ms. Silver," The lawyer continued "But let's just see how long you can last."

He whispered to her just as she sniffed and let out a tiny sob. The lawyer turned to the judge.

"'My Lord," he started "I'd like to call a witness to the stand."

The lady exhaled and then turned to the file in front of her, pulling her round glasses up her face so she could see better. The man in the suit hurried to Olivia quickly with a handkerchief. He handed it to her.

"Miss Amanda Joseph, please take the witness stand."

The whole courtroom remained silent for a little while. Olivia stoped cleaning her eyes at the mention of Amanda's name. They all turned as The dark skinned lady in a red dress slowly got up to her feet. She had a deep scowl on her face and it was obvious her hands were trembling with each step she took towards the witness box.

She tried so hard to avoid facial contact with Olivia, God knew why. She took the witness stand in less than a minute just as the clerk walked up to her with a Bible and a Quran.

"Christian or Muslim?"
He asked her

"Christian." She answered quickly and he brought the Bible forward. Amanda knew exactly what she was supposed to do. She placed her right hand on it and her left hand up.

"Do you solemnly swear on this holy bible to say the truth today and nothing but the truth in this courtroom?"

"I do." She said confidently.

The man slowly took the Bible away from her the moment she rose her hand. He walked away with it. Amanda could feel Olivia's burning gaze on her. She could tell exactly what was going on in her head. This was her friend who had not bothered to see her for once in six years but here she was, in the witness box, all over her business. Why? Why was she suddenly a witness?

Amanda knew all that.

"Miss Joseph," Philip started "You do know that it's an offense to lie under oath don't you?"

"Yes I do."

Amanda's eyes were focused on the rest of the court just as Phillip nodded in satisfaction. Rafael squinted his eyes, it was almost as if he knew what exactly was about to happen in his head.

"How long have you known the accused Miss Joseph?"

"Fifteen years." Amanda answered "We were both beneficiaries of the Silver foundation in our early ages." She slowly turned to Olivia, a tiny smile spreading across her face "We went through secondary school and university together right before I left for med school. Everyone thought we were inseparable."

Olivia stared at her, just what was she doing?

"So it's safe to say you both were best of friends?" Amanda drew her attention back to Philip. "It's also safe to say you both told each other everything isn't it?"

"I guess you could say that." Amanda nodded slowly.
"We told each other our deepest secrets. We were basically sisters."

"Were." Philip paused for a second. "Past tense?"

"Just because Olivia and I were friends doesn't mean I agreed with her lifestyle or choices." Amanda exhaled. "Out of all of us that benefitted from the Silver foundation, Olivia had the roughest life and the best. You see she lost the better part of her memories, memories of her past after the accident that killed her parents and when she was brought to the foundation, she was broken."

Olivia held her breath just as Philip slowly turned to look at her.

"She didn't eat for days. We were all scared she was going to die of starvation. She didn't talk to anyone for months due to her trauma but we were told to be patient with her and kind to her, so we were, at least the few of us that cared to. Olivia always told me stories of how she dreamt her life would be, of how She had always wanted to get married to a prince, live in a big house and have maids at her beck and call, attend luxurious parties and ride in airplanes. We used to laugh at her then because we knew it was almost impossible considering the background we all came from, I mean, who would want to go on a date with a charity case, let alone marry one? But Olivia wasn't like the rest of us. She was pretty and very determined. She's the kind of person to always get what she wants, that was how she met Mr Andrew Silver and before we knew it, she was married to him."

Olivia scoffed. She couldn't believe her ears.

"Were you aware Ms. Silver and Mr Silver had marital issues?"

Amanda nodded

"Few months into the marriage, Olivia opened up to me, she told me she was having a tough time trying to get him to control his temper and I told her to hold on. I told her that it was normal for married couples to have their on and off days, and she just had to understand her husband and deal with him calmly without alerting the public but weeks later, it became worse. She'd come to my office bruised and wounded, with either a broken arm or a black eye or a burst lip, sometimes a broken leg. I asked her so many times to sign for a divorce but she wouldn't listen to me. "

Amanda turned to him

"I guess she was just so lost in all the luxuries and riches he spoilt her with that she didn't care about her safety anymore. "

Rafael slowly turned to Olivia. He was having a hard time processing all Amanda was saying and what was worse was that she didn't look like Amanda was lying at all. He couldn't read her.

"And then when we found out she got pregnant, after he had hit her at Nairobi, she finally took my advice to leave him, but it wasn't the way I expected."

Her voice broke as she slowly placed her hands under the witness box, they were shaking so much so that she couldn't control herself anymore. Her eyes became watery all of a sudden

"My friend looked me in the eye and told me that she was going to leave him but first she had to make him pay for all the hurtful things he had done to her. She told me she hated him so much and she'd be a fool to leave him without insuring her and her daughter's future. That was when she told me what her plans were. That was when she told me she was going to swap his pills to try and kill him."

"Liar." Olivia whispered

"I thought it was a joke, of course it had to be a joke. The Olivia I knew would never have thought of something so inhumane, but I was wrong. The Olivia I knew, the Olivia I grew up with had been consumed by this person, by this side of her I've never seen before. "

"Liar." Olivia yelled at the top of her voice, standing from the box immediately. "Liar, stop lying!"

"I have evidence." Amanda blurted out. "Audio recordings of our conversations." She turned to Philip, her eyes urging him to believe her "I'd dare not lie under oath. She told me she was going to kill him and that was exactly what she did. She killed him."

Olivia felt all the strength in her leave her at that moment. She felt so faint that she was barely keeping it together.

"So in your words," Phillip continued, "You believe Ms. Olivia Silver is responsible for the murder of her husband Mr. Andrew Silver?"

Amanda slowly turned to Olivia as tiny drops of tears fell from her eyes. Olivia was crying too.

"I love my friend." She continued "But What kind of friend would I be, what kind of human would I be if I let my friend go scot free after what she did?"

Amanda sniffed and slowly turned back to everyone else .

"I don't believe Olivia Silver killed Mr. silver, I know she did and I hope this court upholds the law and gives justice for the murder of Mr Silver. He wasn't the best man or best husband but he didn't deserve to die the way he did. No one does."

Amanda slowly bent her head. She was so caught in the moment. Philip exhaled before he slowly turned to the judge. A tiny smile spread across his face

"I rest my case my Lord,"

Rafael exhaled in exhaustion. He rubbed his hand on his forehead like it could curb the headache he was feeling.

This was not good.
This was not good at all