At some point in the trial, the businessman distanced himself from the dark-haired teen and the AI construct, yet he hardly stopped paying attention to their conversation, taking mental notes every couple of sentences as if trying to recreate it within the depths of his mind. It had been a while since he could hear his long-dead friend speaking for this long, undoubtedly invested in the contemplation. It was a refreshing experience; the man wished he had more opportunities to witness and perhaps occasionally participate in. That being said, after all these years, the girl was finally found, meaning his long vigil was at its end. Only a few - it would seem - minimal concerns to address, and it would be all over. The rather unexpected realisation perplexed him briefly, but in the grand scheme of things, it mattered little, if anything at all. Without as much as an ounce of hesitation, the businessman turned around and approached Akali's legal guardian.

"Could we speak privately for a moment, Miss Smith?" Mister Winsome asked, halting for a fleeting moment beside the magenta-haired woman.

"What about her?" Evelynn immediately replied with a question of her own. "What will happen with Akali?"

"I would not worry about her if I were you," the man retorted casually. "As far as I am perceiving this, they are both engaged in a thrilling conversation – something each had not experienced in a long while," he added confidently. "Can we speak privately for a moment, Miss Smith?" the question was repeated.

"Of course," the golden-eyed Goddess slowly responded, turning around. "Lead the way, please," she said politely.

Without anything to add, the businessman resumed his temporarily halted stroll, heading towards the exit with the magenta-haired beauty following a few steps behind. As soon as they left the trial hall, he led them through the same long corridor they had crossed earlier, turning left after a short while. The branching they entered served only as an opening to another long corridor, which could be described as an exact copy of the previous one. That being said, Mister Winsome did not delve deeper into it, stopping by the first door to his right. With as little effort as sliding his ID card through her scanner, the entrance automatically opened, revealing a dimmed, relatively small, and secluded room with sparse furnishing. The businessman stood by the door, inviting the lawyer to come first, gesturing reservedly.

Evelynn hesitated for a moment but ultimately ventured inside, situating herself in the nearest chair. It was a wooden piece of furniture of relatively decent quality. The room was also equipped with one additional chair, a heavy metal rectangular table, and an interactive display hanging on the opposite side, which was currently powered off.

"Let me start with a short: thank you," Mister Winsome finally broke the silence between them, sitting down on the opposite chair.

"Can we drop this act?" Eve immediately questioned, already too tired of dealing with these games of etiquette. "Mister Winsome, you asked me for a private talk… wouldn't it be more beneficial for both of us if we conclude whatever business there is as soon as possible?"

"Pardon me, Evelynn," the businessman retorted, opting to use her name. "If you really want me to drop the formalities, then so be it," he added, lacing his fingers on the table's face. "I will be brief, then. We knew everything about you adopting Akali," Jeff stated plainly, staring at her eyes with coldness she did not expect of him. "Would you like to explain it yourself, or should I summarise it for you?"

"What do you mean?" the lawyer replied automatically, perplexed with a rather unexpected question.

"Eh," a short yet heavy sigh filled the air as the businessman straightened up. "I think I made myself clear, Evelynn," he added after a brief pause, staring her down with the predatory glee in his cold eyes. "We know everything about the whole farce this 'adoption' has been."

"There's nothing more to it," Eve snorted confidently.

"Oh, is that so?" the greying man scoffed. "Very well, I hoped we could resolve this complication peacefully, but now I see that it might not be an option," he said coldly.

Without a moment of hesitation, Mister Winsome pulled a tiny pilot from one of his jacket's pockets and nonchalantly waved it towards the interactive display. Expectedly, the piece of technology picked up the signal and, within a heartbeat, powered up, revealing a directory named "Akali's supposed adoption". Then, the man stood up and seemingly instantaneously closed the gap between him and the monitor. His strides carried confidence and something the lawyer could not name. Watching him felt oddly familiar to spectating the soldier's drill. Jeff Winsome tapped at the folder the following moment, opening it and revealing a long list of files.

"I find it disgusting that you and many others considered this transaction an adoption," the man said quietly, yet to the diva, it seemed as if a thunderstorm raged on. "You paid a million dollars upfront for Akali," he added, slowly unbuttoning his jacket. "Tell me, Miss Smith, how can you call it an adoption?" he said, his voice filled tainted with pain and unfiltered disgust.

The businessman did not allow her to respond as he tapped on two – at first glance, random – documents, splitting the display in half. As much as Evelynn wanted to remain cool, calm, and collected, she could not. The moment she saw a particular transaction document, the siren gulped and wanted to leave the room immediately. There was no point denying it; she knew what it was – after all, it was signed with her signature. It was madness. As far as she knew, there were only two copies of said document – one was safely hidden within a vault in her mansion, while the other should have never been accessible to anyone.

"See? I told you that we know everything," Mister Winsome said, slowly approaching his seat. "Do you still want to pretend as if you did nothing wrong?" he questioned, putting down his jacket on the chair he occupied a few minutes ago.

"What do you want?" was all the living goddess managed to formulate.

"Many things, actually," the man responded quietly, rolling up his shirt sleeves. "First of all, what was your reasoning behind this 'adoption'?" he questioned, folding his surprisingly muscular and tattooed arms across his chest.

"Pettiness," the magenta-haired woman replied truthfully, scanning her speaker.

At this point, Evelynn concluded that Jeff Winsome stopped pretending to be the good guy. Even during their first meeting, she had a nasty feeling that something was off about him. He was too nice. Even when she started mocking him, he did not react, simply playing his role to the t. Until now, she viewed him as a slightly overweight man, yet it turned out to be a false observation. Around his abdomen, he wore a heavy belt that visibly made him plump.

"Before contacting Miss Hindler, you did not even know that her name was Akali. Is it not the case?" the greying man inquired, massaging his knuckles. "For all the technical purposes, her name – in the scope of the offer – was Miranda. Correct?" he continued questioning.

"Yes," the golden-eyed woman said flatly, casting down her sight. She was hardly an expert in terms of military, but she recognised one of the tattoos covering the man's forearm. It was a winged knife followed by the words "Who dares, wins" – a symbol even someone as layman as her associated with the British Special Forces: SAS.

"Have you suspected why they put such a hefty price tag on her – a seemingly ordinary girl, one amongst millions of other orphans?"

"At the time … at the time, I believed they simply tried to sell her with a huge profit," Evelynn slowly responded, stuttering more than she would have liked to.

"Do you not think it is rather naïve?"

"Yes, it was naïve," the lawyer agreed. "When I contacted them for the first time, they tried to do many things to prevent me from 'adopting' her. Hell … even during the final procedure, Miss Hindler did all she could to discourage me. By this point … I already knew they wanted to keep her for themselves," she explained, slowly lifting her head to face the man's cold stare.

"The 'orphanage' wanted to get more money from you afterwards. Is this correct?" he asked, flashing a nasty smile.

"Yes," the diva simply responded. "They were ready to sue me over, but they backed off at some point."

"Since then, you did not have any contact with Miss Hindler or her superiors?"

"Yes."

"You might find it comforting that they no longer can hurt anyone," Mister Winsome boldly stated.

"What do you mean by that? Have you killed them?"

"No, nothing as barbaric as this," the businessman retorted. "But we have them. In time, we will pass them to the justice system."

"What about me?" Eve asked, already speculating.

"That depends on you, Miss Smith," Mister Winsome plainly said. "We know of your rather troublesome past, your shady friends or past lovers. I am willing to let this farse continue if you have Akali's wellness at heart. So, how will it be, Miss Smith?"

"The rest of these documents you briefly showed me, they aren't fake," the siren formulated a question, but she realised it was a rhetorical one.

"Of course not," the man chuckled. "For what it is worth, we found Akali thanks to you. For that reason alone, I'm willing to give you another chance, but that does not mean we will stop watching you."

"I presumed that much."

"Splendid," the greying man retorted, switching to his too-friendly tone. "In that case, I have a few other matters I would like to discuss. And – of course – many more questions," he smiled, but the predatory glee did not dissipate from his eyes.

He was seamless in this, Evelynn realised. For Mister Winsome, switching between an ex-military operative and a polite businessman was as trivial as breathing. That being said … he was a dangerous man – someone the diva should simultaneously dread and pray to be on good terms with. Nonetheless, one thing was clear for the lawyer. From now on, she must be honest with Jeff Winsome, as potentially everything he could ask about, he might already know. No matter how she tried to envision this conversation's development, it would be painful. For better or worse, she might be forced to reveal her sins – things that she found herself unable even openly to acknowledge to herself.


Author's notes section:


The main focus for me remains the rewriting of "My home is where my heart lies". That being said, I know fully well that this process will be long and painful for me, so in the meantime, I will be dropping smaller updates of various stories.

Considering that my rewriting attempts are going as fast as snail runs, I decided to provide you with a new chapter. I know I said that I do not want to release multiple previews in the same timeframe, but this is somehow an exception. I will try to finish it as soon as possible, and then I will return to my usual schedule.

Ok ... let me start with an honest apology. This relatively short chapter took me much time to finally conclude. I really do not like leaving unfinished pieces hanging, just like I did with this WIP. I'm sorry for that. Starting next week, I might have more time to return to my usual schedule, so I would expect the updates to move forward slowly. But ... till then, I can only apologies for how long it took me to finish this. On top of that, I feel like I'm dropping a bomb on you with what this chapters starts to unveil.

Please note that the dialogues written in italics are thoughts.

As always, I would like to thank you for everything. See you soon :)

Changelog:
[2024-09-11] - A preview was released.
[2024-10-12] - A major update applied and the final revision was released.

References:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Gerudo Valley
- Avenged Sevenfold - Seize The Day
- Warlords of Draenor - Wolf at the Gates
- Legion - The Lion's Rest
- Gladiator - Honor Him (Hans Zimmer)
- Disturbed - Enough


End of the author's notes section.