?

　　The evidence was presented before the court, from the Ivy’s Kiss to the involvement of Amir and Laura, everything that we know and that we found out was brought forward. The opposition tried to object and mentioned how we are pushing the blame to Amir just because he is an attendant and he should take the blame, just as we suspected but Amir was firm in his responses, stating that he did what he thought was right.

　　Zeke was also trying to gain sympathy from the judge and jury, by saying that Laura manipulated Amir who would have done anything to protect Isaiah and was slowly instigating that Laura was being controlled by someone else.

　　“It’s strange…” Augustus started. I glanced over to him.

　　“What is?”

　　“They seem to not be as aggressive with defending themselves as I thought they would.”

　　“It’s rather hard to say anything when we have the maid, Laura, as a witness.” Cassian chimed in. “She’ll be going on the stand after Amir, right?”

　　“Hm.” I looked over to where Lady Marie was, and it was just as Augustus said. All of them seemed to be incredibly calm. If Laura takes the stand, she could easier linked Lady Marie’s involvement with the drug and eventually leads back to Declan’s murder. And from there, the plan was to bring up all the information we had about Rosaline and my father. Everything was set up in the way that we needed Laura to do as she said she would. Laura was the key to Lady Marie’s downfall.

　　Amir was then guided from the stand and left the area with some guards. Although they had not come to a verdict yet due to needing Laura to come to the stand, it would seem that Isaiah might be in the clear.

　　“We would like to call Laura Mahogany, an employee of Lady Marie Renaldi to the stand,” Zeke announced.

　　We waited for her to arrive, but time was passing by and there was no sign of her around. Zeke then turned around to look at us, giving us a confused look.

　　“What’s going on…?” I asked no one in particular.

　　“Wasn’t she sent to the court earlier for safety reasons?” Cassian asked Gideon.

　　“Yes, she should be here.” He frowned.

　　I instinctively turned to where Lady Marie was only to meet her gaze. She gave me a half-hearted smirk before looking away smugly. “Oh no…” I muttered.

　　?“What’s wrong?” Augustus asked.

　　“Something must have happened to her.”

　　“Wait. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.” Cassian said. “I’m going to go check with Zeke—” his words trailed off when we saw a guard approach Zeke and Isaiah’s table. They whispered something and I looked at their expressions to figure out what was going on but neither of them showed any form of emotion on their faces.

　　Zeke and Isaiah then turned towards us while the guard went up to the judge. I got up from my seat the same time Cassian did, and we rushed down to where Isaiah and Zeke were.

　　“What’s going on?” Cassian was quick to ask in a low voice.

　　“She vanished.” Zeke merely said.

　　“What do you mean by that?” I frowned.

　　“It’s as it sounds. She’s not at the waiting lounge, there are no signs of her. She just vanished.”? Zeke continued. “That’s what the guard said earlier.”

　　“That’s not possible! There are guards everywhere, how can she just disappear…?” Cassian was as shocked as I was and once again, my gaze was drawn to Lady Marie and the others. They were calm because they knew that the only person we had who could testify against Lady Marie was gone.

　　The case was going to end with Amir being charged guilty for murdering Declan Wright and nothing else. If we did not do anything about this, Lady Marie was still going to not pay for her crime—for all the things she did to Rosaline and my father.

　　Two loud bangs against the wooden panel caught our attention. The judge looked around the room before clearly his throat. “Well, it would seem that something unusual has happened. The witness you are trying to bring out, the alleged person who had illegal drugs in her possession and who also manipulated someone into drugging another person…vanished.”

　　The muttering and chattering of the crowd in the halls started in an instant. Everyone was mentioning how it was not possible or started to theorise that someone must have sneaked the girl away so she would not be able to testify. I slowly wondered if this feeling that was creeping up on me was absolute dread or pure nervousness.

　　Laura was supposed to be our main linkage to Lady Marie and her involvement but without Laura now, how do we even bring forth our evidence about Rosaline or even my father.

　　“Silence please! Silence in the court.” The judge called out, banging his grovel against the wooden panel and ordering everyone to turn to him once more. “Due to this strange outcome, we will conduct an internal investigation about this. Trial is dismissed until the next day.”

　　“Shit.” Cassian muttered under his breath as another loud bang echoed through the room.

　　People slowly got out of their seats and emptied the halls. Isaiah was taken away and it would seem that he had to stay here for today since he was still considered a culprit. This was getting out of hand.

　　“They must’ve done something to her.” I muttered as we headed out of the courtroom.

　　“They? You mean Lady Marie?” Cassian asked.

　　I nodded. “She seemed too calm; I should’ve known something was out of place. If Laura was taken by Lady Marie, then she is in danger. We need to find her, Cassian.” I said, urgency tainting my voice.

　　He nodded. “I know, I’m on it.” he said but just as he was about to walk ahead, a loud piercing scream could be heard.

　　All of us turned to the source and my instincts were screaming at me, telling me that something had just gone terribly wrong. I felt myself rushing towards the source and even though Augustus and Cassian called out my name to stop me, I ignored them. There was a strange feeling deep down in my gut which I desperately needed to be proven wrong. I needed to see for myself that I was wrong and that I was just overthinking.

　　As I pushed my way through the crowd that had formed, I managed to squeeze to the front of the crowd only to let out a silent gasp, my hands moving to cover my mouth. There, laid out in the open was a body of a woman, face paled as though her blood was drained and glassy eyes staring out at nothing. It was Laura Mahogany.

　　“This can’t be…” a familiar voice called out. Two comforting presences stood next to me but even so, I could feel my chest pounding painfully. Laura was dead.

　　“We need to get out of here.” Cassian whispered.

　　“But…Laura—” I started, still unable to shake away this shock and this guilt of my being.

　　“There’s nothing we can do; we need to leave and regroup so we can come up with another plan. One of our main witnesses has just been murdered, it is not safe here.” Cassian tried to convince me but before I could reply, I felt myself being pulled away from the crowd.

　　Guards came rushing towards the crowd as the three of us left. By the carriages, Aiden and Gideon awaited. They gave us a concerned look.

　　“Did something happen?” Gideon asked.

　　“Laura’s dead,” Augustus said blatantly.

　　“What?” Aiden and Gideon echoed each other.

　　“I can only assume that Lady Marie has an insider or one of her men managed to sneak into the security force. That’s why Laura was easily targeted.” Cassian theorised.

　　“Then, Isaiah and Amir—” I started.

　　“They would probably not harm Amir nor Isaiah because both of them are the prime suspects after all. Amir only interacted with Laura, he never got in touch with Lady Marie so there’s no correlation between them whatsoever.” Cassian explained.

　　“Let us discuss this back at the palace.” Gideon told us. “It is not safe for us to speak freely about this out in the open.”

　　We agreed with him with firm nods, and everyone dispersed to head to their carriages. I walked towards my own, the coachman was already by the door, waiting for me. The coachman pulled the door open for me and offered his arm. I took it, about to enter the carriage only to pause when something did not feel right.

　　I loosened my grip, wanting to pull away when I realised that this was not the same person. He looked up at me, a man I have never seen in my life while his grip on my hand tightened. I opened my mouth, ready to scream when two strong hands from inside the carriage pulled me in. I fell onto the seat painfully as the door to the carriage was slammed shut.

　　“Sorry for the rough handling, princess.” An unfamiliar voice said. I looked up at the man who sat opposite of me. He had short dark hair, fair and scarred skin and an eyepatch covering his right eye. He offered me a toothy grin. “But Lady Marie is waiting for you.”