"What the hell was the meaning of that?!" Olivia shook the moment Rafael's file made a loud thud as it came in contact with the metal table.
She could feel a chill breeze pass through her as she watched him glare at her, frustration written all over his face.
"I thought I made it clear to you?" He asked her "I asked you not to keep any secrets from me and then what did you do? You left out the part that you almost murdered someone in your childhood?"
"I didn't do it- I was only trying to protect myself." Olivia could barely look him in his eyes now. She was so scared.
"What?" Rafael whispered in disbelief
"Hey," Tony pulled his arm slightly so he could at least try to calm him down
"You see that?" Rafael turned to him "She just humiliated me in court." He told Tony, trying to keep his tone in check "This was exactly what I was trying to avoid."
"I didn't tell you because I thought it was all in the past." Olivia finally summoned up the courage to talk. "I didn't think it was important- I had no idea they were going to dig up an event from years ago," She looked into his eyes
"I'm sorry. Don't give up on me, don't give up on my case. Please."
Her eyes had tears in them. It was obvious she was so scared and confused all at once with the way she stared at him. Rafael scoffed, placing his hand on his hip and turned away. He tried to take deep breaths. He could hear Tony's footsteps approach him as he held on to the table for support. He needed to grip something if he wanted to grasp all the air he could into his lungs.
"Hey man." Tony whispered to him as soon as he got close. Placing a hand on his shoulder. "Take it easy on her okay."
Rafael scoffed out loud.
Was Tony serious? Was he really trying to take her side after everything?
"She's having a hard time too just like all of us. I'm sure all hope isn't lost yet, I'm sure there's still a chance we can win this. There's something you can do-"
Rafael stood straight, his hands still firm on his hips. He slowly turned to Olivia.
"Is there anything else I should know?" He looked at her "Any other secrets you're hiding? Anything that could compromise this case?"
"No." Olivia assured him.
"Are you sure?"
"There's none, I swear it."
For some reason, Rafael believed her. He nodded and turned to Susan
"I need you to get to what we talked about." He told her and she nodded in agreement.
Rafael let out an exhale
"We are not losing this case today."
༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛
Twenty minutes later and Rafael took the stand.
Olivia could feel her chest tighten. She puffed a lot of air in her cheeks, rubbing her hands nervously.
"My lord, if I may, I'd like to bring a witness to the stand." He demonstrated, looking at the Judge.
"You may."
Rafael slowly turned to the court
"Mrs Kehinde Kayode?" Rafael called looking at the old lady that had walked into the courtroom earlier with the little girl. She looked at him like she wasn't surprised, like she was expecting it. "Please take the stand at the witness box?"
Olivia slowly turned to the lady. Six years had done a great deal on her. Of course she knew who she was. There was only one person in the Silver mansion that was allowed to make Victoria's food or supervise the activities of all the other workers in the house, it was none other but the woman that approached the witness box, trying to avoid any form of eye contact with her.
How could she?
She must have probably hated herself for what she did to Olivia six years ago. It was amazing how this lady always told Olivia how much she admired her back at the mansion. How she did all she could to make sure Olivia was happy and comfortable the moment she moved into the mansion. How she was the only one that prescribed pain killers for her whenever Andrew used her as a punch bag but on that faithful day six years ago, that woman was very different from the woman she had always known. She took their side and made up false testimonies about the kind of person Olivia was. She broke her heart.
"I do."
Olivia narrowed her gaze on the woman the moment she took her hand away from the Bible and glued her eyes to Rafael.
"Mrs kayode," Rafael started. "What's your relationship with the deceased? With the Silver family as a whole?"
"The Silver family has been my whole life." The woman answered, nodding after every sentence. "I've worked for them as a maid and then nanny and head of staff for thirty two years. I was there the day sir Austin was born and I was there the day sir Andrew was born. I bathed them and cared for them all their lives. I'm also in charge of supervising the cooking in the house. The Silvers are the only family I've known my whole life."
Rafael nodded. Not like he didn't know all that, he did.
"And this woman sitting right behind you,"
He continued, gesturing to Olivia. "Do you know her too?"
The woman nodded, not bothering to turn.
"She's Ma Olivia Silver, I was also there the day she moved into the mansion. It was my job to see to it that she was comfortable and all her needs were met."
"And who gave you this job?"
"Sir Andrew, may his soul rest In peace."
"So, to your understanding, it's safe to say Mr Silver loved his wife?"
"More than life." The woman answered. "His happiest memories were when he was with her. He called her everyday, he didn't go for any event without her by his side. He bought her gifts and he'd always fight with madam Victoria anytime she mistreated madame Olivia or called her names and it made us all worry because he also loved madam Victoria so much but when it came to madam Olivia, it seemed like all that love was gone. And anytime he had fights with madam Olivia, he would shut himself from the rest of the world and wouldn't eat for days utill she forgave him. I remember how upset it made madam Victoria. She even thought madam Olivia had used some sort of juju on her son."
"Some sorta love wasn't it?"
"Ehn?"
Rafael smiled.
"Never mind." He let out a small laugh that made the woman really uncomfortable. "Mrs Kayode, were you aware that Mr Silver abused his wife regularly? Did you know he hit her and even r-" Rafael paused. Suddenly, his tongue felt really heavy. He couldn't bring himself to say those words. "Did you know he forced himself on her-"
"He beat her, yes. One, two, many times, that I knew of but they were married, so I wouldn't exactly count it as rape when he made her perform her duties as a wife in bed."
"You didn't count it as -" Rafael scoffed. He just could hide how disgusted he was by this woman's ignorance. He took a deep breath. "Mrs Kayode, can you please define the term rape to this court?"
"This is not a classroom my lord." Philip announced from where he sat. "The defense lawyer has failed to create relevance with his questions to the case matter."
"Barrister Philip is right, barrister Okonkwo," the Judge told Rafael "You might want to get to the point."
"In due time my lord," Rafael smiled and turned back to the woman who just sat there listening attentively.
"Mrs Kayode, six years ago, you testified under oath at this very court as a witness, claiming to see My client here, walking out of the deceased's study with a tiny bottle in her hands."
"Yes I did." The lady nodded.
"You also claimed that when you approached her and tried to see what it was that she was trying to do, she hid the bottle behind her. Can you confirm if I'm right?"
The lady nodded.
"Yes, six years ago, I bumped into madame Olivia on my way to sir Andrews study. We had all thought she had left already because it was late oga Silver's Memorial Day and everyone else were paying their respects at the back of the house. She was holding a bottle that looked like one of sir Andrews pills. I remember walking up to her to ask her why she was still around and the moment she saw me, she hid the bottle behind her but I had already seen it by then."
"And you're sure this happened the night Mr Silver was murdered?"
"Five forty-five pm, Twenty third of February, two thousand and thirteen." The woman nodded. "I remember it like it was yesterday."
"And it was you that found my client, sneaking out of the study, not one of the maids, you."
"I caught her live and direct. I know it's a crime to lie under oath. I wouldn't dare."
Rafael nodded. He understood perfectly.
"One minute my lord." He told the Judge and then headed back to the table. Susan handed him some papers and he walked back with them to the Judge.
"My lord, if I may," he looked at the Judge. "I'd like to present these pictures to the court."
He stretched out one of the papers just as the clerk walked briskly towards him, took it from him and headed right back to the Judge. He handed it to her. Rafael walked straight to Philip too and gave him one. He grinned softly and turned away before he could see the great look of surprise that spread on Philip's face. Rafael walked back to the woman. He raised the paper just so she could see it.
The woman coughed out loud like she was going to throw her guts up immediately she saw the picture on it.
"Do you recognize this picture Mrs Kayode?"
The lady quickly turned to face him, her eyes wide open like she had just seen a ghost.
Rafael scoffed.
"Of course you do, you're in it with this young man, fresh-king-Kayode." Rafael read out loud from the paper. "Can you tell the court your relationship with this young man?"
The lady took a deep breath. She slowly turned to Victoria who just stared at her, wondering what was going on. She narrowed her gaze back at Rafael.
"H-he," She stammered "He's my son." She said faintly.
"What?" Rafael leaned closer "I-I didn't hear that. Can you please be louder."
"He's my son." She repeated, this time a bit louder so everyone else could hear her.
"Cool." Rafael told her "And may I ask what the occasion was?" He continued as she glared at him "Because from this picture my assistant found on his facebook, he seemed to be graduating. He's in a graduation gown and a cap so, was that it? Was this his graduation day?"
The lady shut her eyes and exhaled.
"Yes." She said softly.
"Where was it?" He asked. "Lagos? Port harcourt? Delta state? Kano state?"
"Ghana."
Rafael smiled. He was really enjoying where this was going.
"Ghana." He nodded slowly. "That's quite a distance from the FCT don't you think? There's also a live video we were able to retrieve from his facebook profile. We have it on record and we also have a screenshot of it in the picture I just showed you. And in that video, you were telling him how proud he had made you and how you were going to take him and his friends out to celebrate fully the next day. You looked really happy with him. That live video was made at exactly six PM, so it's safe to say you didn't return to Nigeria that same day. You slept in a hotel in Accra, vis-á-vis hotel to be precise, the Silvers paid for your trip and accommodation from bank records and hotel statistics and according to your check in and check out time the hotel was able to share with us, you happened to check out three days later, on the twenty fifth of February, Isn't it?"
The lady sighed loudly. She was shaking all over already and she was also running out of breath. She didn't need to answer that. Her body language already gave her out.
"Mrs Kayode, can you please tell the court when this picture was taken?"
Her lips were shaking. She could barely speak. She was trying to but she couldn't.
Rafael raised the paper and turned to the Judge.
"My Lord, as you can see from the paper I gave you consisting of pictures from the facebook page of the son of our witness here, these pictures were uploaded at exactly six forty five pm on the twenty third of February twenty thirteen and the live video was made at exactly four o'clock on that same day, twenty third of February twenty thirteen. Now my Lord, the witness here, claims to have been in the house on the day of the incident but these photos and every other evidence presented just now says something different. It says our witness wasn't in Abuja on the day of the incident, she wasn't even in the country. She was on a three days vacation in Ghana. How on earth can one person be in two countries at the same time? This can only mean one thing, the witness lied under oath six years ago and she lied under oath just now." He turned to the woman. "Only difference is she lied to the wrong court, at the wrong time and to the wrong defense lawyer."
He slowly turned to the scared woman. She was trembling from head to toe and it was almost like she was going to pee on herself there and then. He leaned closer to her.
"You might need a lawyer now Mrs Kayode." He whispered to her loud enough for Olivia to hear him.
Olivia stared at them both. Speechless, shocked and so was the rest of the court.