# Bonus Chapter 21: ClosureThe trial had taken eighteen months.Eighteen months of postponements, motions, evidence hearings—the slow grinding machinery of the justice system handling a case with explosives, attempted murder, kidnapping, and arson all stacked together. Eighteen months in which Valentina had testified twice, sat through hours of Marcus's lawyer trying to paint him as a man undone by love rather than a predator who'd nearly killed her.She'd taken a leave from the bookstore the weeks she testified. Duke had gone with her every single day, sitting in the gallery, his presence a steady weight she could feel even when she wasn't looking at him.The sentencing hearing fell on an ordinary Tuesday in November. Gray sky, cold wind, the kind of day that made the courthouse steps feel especially institutional and bleak."You don't have to come," Duke had said that morning, watching her get dressed in the dim bedroom light. "The lawyer said the verdict's basically a formality at
Last Updated : 2026-06-20 Read more