phoenix continued to play with the locket in his hand
'..while I was in recovery, they had to hire another lawyer in my place to take over, i got to choose who got to take over my position, I wasn't about to let some other motherfucker take my place'
apollo nodded
'..it wasn't until a year and one month later that i found my replacement, his name was Joshua poppet'
'yeah i heard of him, ..apparently, he was fired for showing fake evidence in court'
phoenix expression darkened
'throughout my entire life, I've learned how to read people, I know lairs when I see one, poppet was a good man, and i know he was set-up, and after I read over the court records, ..nothing made any sense to me'
apollo looked over at him
'what do you mean?'
'..before Poppet took over the case officially, i was asked to play cards with Zak Gramarye, trucy's biological father, ..the weirdest fucker i ever met, we didn't talk about the trial or anything, just played poker, i ended up winning and he asked me for the services'
apollo's eyes slightly widen as he continued to listen
'of course, i told him no and that my replacement was taking over, ..he agreed to the terms, .. poppet was up against rockstar, at the time he was 17, but he was smart, ..you already know how the case ended from their'
he nodded, holding up the case file for proof and all
'..after the disappearance of trucy's father and poppet having his badge taken away, i got involved
'w-what do you mean?'
'i started up my own investigation, i didn't trust anything that came out of that trial, nothing made any sense, that and i wanted to find trucy's father, ..so that she could at least know he was safe'
he said in a slightly softer expression, apollo put back down the file and placed it on his lap, staring down at it
'Mr wright sir, ..i-if you don't mind me asking, when did you adopt trucy anyway?'
'it as about a week after Gramarye went missing, i tried looking for other family members, she didn't have any other existing relatives, ..no other family, ..so i asked her if she wanted me to take care of her, or if she wanted to go to an orphanage, ..she chooses me so I've been her dad ever since'
apollo eyes narrowed to phoenix's golden bracelet, how he was playing with the locket on, his other locket hanging around his neck, shimmering in the sunlight
'i-i see'
'..every child deserves a loving parent that will take care of them, ...i know what it's like to lose a parent, ...and to be placed with someone who you don't trust or feel safe with, ...i refuse to let trucy experience what i went through
apollo felt his heart ache a little hearing that
'..i didn't trust that trial, and i was right, ...poppet was setup, ...he never did anything wrong, he was naive in that trial, and didn't listen to me, but he is an innocent man'
'h-how did you find out?'
phoenix stopped playing with his necklance as he bent over and reached for is notebook underneath, flipping through the pages
'here, I'll show you'