My Roommate Framed Me for Crashing Car—It’s Owner Was My Brother Chapter 09
One month later, at the Cedar Ridge County
District Court.
I sat behind the prosecution, my gaze steady on
the defense table.
A month had drained nearly every trace of life
from Madison and Ethan.
Madison looked hollow and gray, almost
ghostlike.
I’d heard that while they were being held, she and
Ethan had turned viciously on each other, each
trying to shift the blame, until one of their fights
turned physical.
During one fight, she miscarried. Without time to
recover properly, she looked ten years older.
Ethan had lost a shocking amount of hair. His
eyes were sunken, his cheekbones sharp, and the
polished arrogance he’d once worn as an SGA
officer was gone.
Standing together, they looked like two walking
corpses.
Throughout the hearing, their court–appointed defense attorney kept dabbing sweat from his
brow.
He tried to argue that they were young college
students who had acted impulsively in the middle
of a relationship dispute and asked the judge for
leniency.
Against the mountain of evidence, the argument
sounded almost absurd.
The Whitmore family’s elite white–shoe legal team
had built an airtight case, leaving the defense
nowhere to hide.
The evidence established both the deliberate
scheme involving the million–dollar bike and the
long–running embezzlement of student financial
aid.
There were witnesses, financial records, video,
and even Ryan’s detailed statement.
The Whitmores‘ attorneys had built the case so carefully that the defense eventually ran out of
answers.
The entire proceeding lasted less than two hours.
The judge’s gavel came down, the crack echoing
through the courtroom.
The ruling was fair and unforgiving.
Madison Blake and Ethan Carter were convicted
of large–scale embezzlement and fraud carried out
under especially serious circumstances with
significant harm to others.
On top of devastating civil damages, the judgment
left them financially ruined.
With the charges combined, each received seven
years and six months in state prison.
The moment Madison heard the sentence, her
knees gave out. She collapsed beside the defense
table, sobbing uncontrollably.
Ethan clenched his teeth, trembling from head to toe, then slammed his forehead against the railing
as tears ran down his face.
After court, I was walking down the long corridor
when deputies escorted the two of them past me in handcuffs.
Madison stopped short.
Her bloodshot eyes locked on mine as she spat a
curse at me.
“Grace Whitmore, I hope you die! Even if I come
back as a ghost, I’ll never leave you alone!”
I stopped and calmly smoothed the
already–perfect hem of my clothes.
I looked down at her and gave a soft laugh.
“Save your curses for the concrete walls of your
cell.”
“Have fun making license plates. Maybe one day you’ll earn enough to pay me back.”
I didn’t give her another glance. I turned and walked through the courthouse doors.
Outside, the sunlight was almost painfully bright.
Grant’s flashy sports car was parked at the curb.
The second he saw me, he leaned on the horn, stuck his head out the window, and waved with a grin almost as bright as the sun.