I felt a sudden waft of dismay on my skin after licking the blood of the knife.
What am I?

___________

Judge: "Do you solemnly swear that the answers you are about to give, touching upon your qualifications to serve as jurors in this case now before the court, will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"I swear I will tell you the truth."

Judge: "This court is now in session. The people will be seated."

Everyone sat on their seat, commotion slowly gave its place to a deadly silence which made me sweat, as I felt a drop of water rolling down my forehead.

Judge: "Mrs. Lee, you stand accused of the crime of murder. How do you plead?"

Looking at his serious face, I realized everything was real and not a disturbing nightmare that I could wake up from. I managed to seem steady and calm, "I didn't kill anyone."

He cleared his throat, writing something on the paper on his desk, "Then you plead not guilty?"

"Yes,"

Judge: "Very well, then. Mrs. Lee, you may approach the stand." He pointed to the box beside his desk.

I walked over to the box and I could see all the people in the court. Sensing the anger fleeing in my veins, I saw Taehyung, Jimin, Hoseok, Jin, Namjoon, Yoongi, and Junia sitting next to each other. Taehyung dropped his head as he noticed my gaze on him. Uh, he was feeling guilty now? That asshole literary counterfeited a marriage license and wrecked my life just after the competition.

Jackson told me I was all over the news and even my board of directors had been deciding to replace me with Hyunjin as I was standing here accused of killing a person who was unknown to me. Bastards! Even I was thinking maybe it was all Hyunjin, planning to ruin my life.

But how could it be possible? Hyunjin and Taehyung were like bloody enemies. How could they plan this together, or maybe they just acted like they were enemies. Every inch of my head was hurting from analyzing the incident which happened lately, trying to find something that I possibly missed among the mysterious happenings.

Judge: "Will the prosecution please rise?" The harsh voice of him echoing through the dull walls, he demanded, "You may proceed."

A middle-aged man with grey hair stood up, arranging some paper in his hands, he walked towards me, staring at me through his thick glasses, "Mrs. Lee, did you torture and kill your brother-in-law?"

Playing with my hair nervously, I gulped but not a dip of saliva was in my mouth, "Of course not."

Prosecutor: "You didn't pay someone else to commit this crime for you?" He narrowed his eyes as if he could see through my soul like that.

"I didn't, I don't have any brother-in-law. I'm not married." Fisting my hands I defended myself.

Judge: "Just answer the questions, Mrs. Lee, don't interrupt the process."

Jackson gestured me to be silent, and I puffed out unwillingly, trying to be relaxed and unbothered.

Prosecutor: "Don't you own a company, Mrs. Lee?"

"Yes,"

He continued, "And what are your products?"

Such a dumb question, "Anything relatable to Artificial Intelligence."

Prosecutor: "Have you ever got paid for doing something illegal?"

"Yes, but I refused."

He scratched his nose curiously, shifting his glasses, "What about your employees?"

"As long as I know, no they didn't accept any money to do illegal works."

Prosecutor: "Mrs. Lee, What exactly you got paid for and refused?"

Thinking carefully, l licked my lips, "A famous company asked me to develop a gadget in their system that they could track every information of their workers and customers without getting caught."

Soft whispering could be heard from every corner of the court, gasping and probably suspecting which company had done this. They were acting as if they had been attacked or raped, And the worst part was that the company was promoting lots of apps.

Prosecutor: "How much they offered to pay?"

"700 million Won."

Again everyone gasped and a little debate was lurking in the atmosphere. The judge was trying to bring back the hush, beating down his gavel on a wooden area. Very soon everyone was quiet as the prosecutor started off with his questions again.

Prosecutor: "So Mrs. Lee, there is so much evidence that says you are guilty and still you're denying. How you're gonna explain this?"

"Sir, I don't even know what are you talking about and it's definitely all planned to take advantage of me in some doors."

He chuckled slightly, spinning the pen between his fingers, "I can prove you're the killer with certainty, you can't plead innocent without a strong reason."

His words rolling like a reptile in my head, I was so mad and irritated by them and all of that shitty trial, "Stronger than that I'm not married?"

His eyes shined victoriously, he showed the marriage license to the court and jury, spoke mockingly, "I have nothing else to say, your Highness."

Before that judge could speak, the door opened revealing Dr. Kyun and a young man with her. A man with a police uniform stood respectfully towards the court, "Sorry for the interruption Sir, they're here."

What were they doing here?

Judge: "Alright, Mrs. Lee you may go back to your seat."

I bolted and walked away from the box. As soon as I sat down Jackson took my hands in his, sensing the coldness of my skin, he gave me a comforting smile.
Jackson: "You did great, relax."

Sending the air in my lungs rushingly I sat back, looking at Dr. Kyun. The judge ordered that she had to stand there. She climbed up the box, taking a glimpse of me which I didn't find pleasant at all.

Prosecutor: "Dr. Kyun, Do you confirm that you've been doing therapy sessions with Mrs. Lee Dallia for 4 years now?"

Dr. Kyun: "Yes,"

Prosecutor: "What was the reason when she visited you for the first time?"

She intertwined her fingers, pressing them against each other, her knuckles turning white, she replied, "She had an anxiety disorder and that was bothering her so much, since she's running a company as you know, she has to communicate with so many people."

Prosecutor: "Did you diagnose her with psychosis or schizophrenia symptoms?"

Dr. Kyun: "No, she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, she was having anxiety attacks at that period."

Prosecutor: "And after one year you came to this conclusion that she suffers from bipolar affective disorder too, am I correct?"

She hesitated, looking at me momentarily, and then spoke, "Yes Sir,"

Prosecutor: "Did you find out anything suspicious about her, or did she talk to you about the intention of murdering or torturing someone?"

I was just sitting there, without any control. It seemed like I was in a video game and players were doing everything they want, to destroy my life and I couldn't just quit the game, because that would mean that I should die. Dying was the only portal to survive.

Dr. Kyun: "No, she was normal mostly, just sometimes having manic episodes and depression episodes made her behavior different."

Rummaging his documents, the prosecutor read something on a paper, "The dead body of Kim Sunghoon, previous CEO of KTC company had been discovered in his house on February 25th but not in a normal way. The evidence shows that he had been torturing and his body was torn apart by a knife, every piece of his flesh all over his room. His head was hanging from the balcony of his manor while his eyeballs were out of his skull on his desk. A note was written on the wall with a red stain of his blood, This is just the beginning my lovely brother-in-law."

Even imagining that, was rising the feeling of disgust and throwing up in my stomach, making my hands tremble in fear. How could I do such horrible things? They were out of their minds. I glanced in Taehyung's direction, he was chewing his nails anxiously. He must be really traumatized by this...

Prosecutor: "Dr. Kyun, Mrs. Lee visited you on February 25th, exactly before going to Sunghoon's mansion. Did she tell you something about planning to kill him?"

Dr. Kyun: "I was so busy that day, but since I really care about her, after receiving her call about visiting me as soon as possible, I told her to come." She exhaled nervously, tapping her hand gently on the desk, "She was so desperate and scared when she arrived at my office. I asked her if something was wrong but she was just pacing the room and asking me to give her a pill that could calm her down."

My eyes wide open, I looked at Jackson in disbelief. I didn't remember any of those bullshits she was saying. Was she against me too? Jackson squeezed my hand, mouthing me a freaking "Don't worry". I just shook my head, scoffing in irritation.

The prosecutor narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms, and continued, "Did you give her anything?"

Dr. Kyun: "Of course not, she was already using medications."

Prosecutor: "Correct me if I am wrong, so you're telling me that she was on drugs, and according to your testimony she was using Lithobid, Depakene, and Xanax (Bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder medicines), Am I right?"

Earning a yes from Dr. Kyun, he opened his mouth again, "And according to medical research drowsiness, dizziness, tiredness, increased thirst, increased frequency of urination, weight gain, mildly shaking hands and trouble concentrating may occur, but Do these drugs lead the person to do something that they could not be aware of at that moment?"

Dr. Kyun: "I haven't heard anything like that before."

Prosecutor: "And it was all on February 25th, 2 years ago, after you diagnosed her with bipolar disorder?"

Dr. Kyun: "That's right."

Prosecutor: "No further questions for now your Highness." He bowed and walked to his seat again.

Judge: "Dr. Sung, please approach the stand." He said and that young man who was with Dr. Kyun walked to the box slowly and I remembered he was the one who did surgery on me because of my accident. What the hell was he doing here? Was he going to tell bullshit too?

Prosecutor: "You were the Neurosurgeon in Mrs. Lee's case. Did you see any abnormal behavior in her after the operation?"

Brushing his nightly black hair with his hand, he responded, "No, but she lost part of her memory after the accident."

They say everyone has a margin. This means that you can pull the string till you reach the moment when you can't tug it anymore because that's the boundary of that string. At that time I felt like I reached the end of my string, everything whirling in my head, I couldn't figure out anything. I turned my head gazing at Deiji and Uncle Haeyoon, wishing they could explain this through their eyes but they weren't looking at me, and Uncle Haeyoon was crying silently making me more afraid of what might have happened that I was clueless of. Did they know and chose not to tell me whole this fucking time? No, I couldn't believe it...

Prosecutor: "Can you explain specifically Dr. Sung?"

Dr. Sung that seemed to be really unbothered, took out some documents from his suitcase, "These are Mrs. Lee's medical reports. She had craniotomy surgery for taking out the stroke (blood clot) of her skull which occurred due to her accident. She woke up in an intensive care unit (ICU). In the first few hours, she had frequent neuro-obs, like checking how alert she was, testing her reflexes, checking that her pupils reacted to light, checking her pulse and blood pressure, and..., she was also linked to a ventilator. The amount of time it takes to wake up after surgery varies. Many people wake up very soon afterward, but some people remain unconscious for several hours or a few days. In Mrs. Lee's case, she woke up after two weeks being in a coma. She had difficulty in seeing and talking at first but after 3 days she recovered from that but still, she had lost parts of her memories. The loss of memory from the moment of TBI onward is called post-traumatic amnesia. It can last from a few minutes to several weeks or months or even never coming back, depending on the severity of brain injury."

Prosecutor: "Thank you so much for your explanation, Dr. Sung."

Dr. Sung went back to his seat. The court was silent and just a few mumbles could be heard from the people who didn't seem to be as shocked as I was. Why Uncle Haeyoon and Deiji didn't tell me about this? This meant that I was really married?

I tilted my head, whispering in Jackson's ear, "Tell me this is a joke."

He shook his head slightly, slipping his tongue on his lips, "Unfortunately not."

I was about to say something but the judge hit his gavel, making me flinch at the harsh sound of it, "Mr. Kim Taehyung, please come over."

As he was walking to the stand, he looked at me and I saw so many emotions in his eyes. The glittery shine of his eyes was demonstrating he was at the urge of crying. Was he really my husband and I killed his brother? That was ridiculous.

Prosecutor: "Mr. Kim, you bribed the police and circumvented the laws just forty-eight minutes after the incident. Why did you give the cops money to stop the investigation? Do you know you can be under arrest for that? Why did you help your wife in killing your brother?"

Taehyung touched his forehead and spoke with an uncertain tone, "I did that because I knew Dallia was innocent, and never in a million years she would have done it. She loved Sunghoon just like her brother. All of that was planned and I should have found out who was doing this to me and my family."

I was dumbfounded more, he was defending me?

Prosecutor: "So you found the police a bothersome in your way?" He snored mockingly.

Taehyung: "They were going to arrest her and everything was against her, I couldn't risk."

Prosecutor: "Unfortunately I should tell you, after changing the sheriff of our department, he decided to open up the case again." He smirked, striding back and forth.

Taehyung remained silent, biting his lips and fisting his hands. The rush of madness and sorrow was taking over his body and I could simply feel that.

Prosecutor: "Your wife was found in your brother's manor dressed in a nightgown on his bed, sleeping while Sunghoon's body was slaughtered and his flesh was all over the walls."

That ringed a bell in my head, I remembered my constant nightmare about the room which was full of human flesh and blood. All of my muscles hardened at the thought of it and I gulped, wishing I could remove the fear's nails on my neck.

Prosecutor: "Why would you help your wife even though she was cheating on you behind your back with your brother? Weren't you mad at her, or you were the one who killed him after finding out he was sleeping with your wife?" He leaned forward towards Taehyung, playing a psychological game on him and my mouth was wide open at the sudden information he was giving me. I was praying for it to be a nightmare.

Jackson: "Objection, your Highness. The prosecutor is accusing Mrs. Lee of sleeping with her brother-in-law without any evidence." He said calmly, still, the anger was flickering from his body.

Judge: "Objection is sustained."

The prosecutor gazed at Jackson angrily like he just lost a round of his game, and indeed that hurt. He just sneered and sat back in his seat, "You may explain the whole story, Mr. Kim."

Taehyung who was mad and his eyes were shooting pellets at the prosecutor, cleared his throat, "Let me start from seven months before the incident."

__________
2825 Words

A.N: Such a difficult part! I spent a lot of my time on this guys since it was a court scene and I don't know how trials work and I haven't been in one, so it took me so long to make it as realistic as possible

Please tell me what do you think about my writing in this part? And don't forget to vote and comment because that gives me the strength to continue writing.

Who do you suspect at this point? Do think Dallia is really married to Taehyung and she killed his brother? Even cheated on him?
Any theory?

Love you so much,
See you at the next part.

Creepy Prodigy 💜

One more thing, please check out my new story 'Cherry Baby'. I'm sure you will love it.
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And a special thanks to one of my cherries who made two covers for Fatal Secret, thank you so much hon. 😍 I love them.
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