Isabella~
"You arrived so early today, Miss Luis, that there was time for attorneys to see their clients in the cell." After noticing the wall clock, the police officer stared at me with surprise.
He was right; I came so early today to meet Xavier. After seeing him yesterday, I couldn't concentrate on my other tasks because all I could think about was him. I took on this case as a challenge to myself, but it also seemed to be a test of my feelings and the emotions I had long since buried deep within me.
I always wanted to know the reason behind his betrayal, his backstabbing, how he met Alicia, and why he never told me that he loved my stepsister. I had been asking myself these questions for years, and yesterday, I finally had all the answers I needed. After hearing his story, I became resentful of him due to his deceit and insult towards me.
However, I also respected him for being open and truthful with me. Accepting their errors is a challenging task, particularly for an egocentric individual such as Xavier Thompson.
I took notes on the information he provided and spent the entire night examining his case from a variety of perspectives. One thing I am very sure of is that whoever is behind this murder case is not a normal person. He must be a very intelligent and sharp-minded person who trapped a sharp-minded criminal lawyer, Xavier Thompson.
"Miss Luis, please wait there until the cell opens for visitors." A police officer gestured for me to sit on the bench located in the corner of the police station.
"Alright." I sighed deeply and then walked towards the bench.
I checked the time on the wall clock. I came 30 minutes early just to meet Xavier. Is my early arrival just because of the case, or is there another reason? I don't pay early visits to clients or anybody else, so why did I come here earlier than I was supposed to today? I questioned myself.
I appeared controlled and serene from the outside, but I was fighting an internal battle. Unknowingly, I treated him as a special client, focusing so much on his case that it made me question if it was solely due to my profession or if I still harbored minimal feelings for him, possibly out of sympathy. Indeed, I no longer love him for what he did to me, so why am I supporting him rather than getting even with him when I have a perfect opportunity to do so?
No, I can't take revenge on this vulnerable Xavier Thompson; he can not harm anyone now because he is already begging me to save his life. I want to take my revenge on that egoistic Xavier Thompson who insulted me in front of the crowd, and that egoistic Xavier died with the murder of his wife Alicia.
So, do you forgive him now and give him a chance to enter your life again? My mind questioned me.
No, that isn't possible; forgiving someone doesn't entail giving them another chance to deceive us.
"Miss Luis, you can meet Mr. Thompson; he is waiting for you in the visitor's cell." A police officer's voice interrupted my internal war.
I got up from the bench and walked to meet Xavier. As soon as I saw him seated in the visiting cell, my heart began to race, my steps felt rapid, and I had butterflies in my stomach. Oh god, what's happening to me? I have to focus on my work. I took a long breath to settle myself and stepped closer to him, hiding my inner conflict behind the icy exterior.
"I didn't think you would arrive so early, Bella." Despite my repeated instructions, he refused to call me Veronica, and his words only fueled my internal conflict.
"Mr. Thompson, I looked over your wife's call log and noted a few numbers. Look over these, and let me know if you recognize any." I didn't want to talk to him about anything that might make me feel worse or take my mind off of my work.
"No, I am not familiar with any of these numbers." He shook his head when he saw Alicia's phone's call log list.
"My instinct informed me that Alicia was not the intended target and that everything was a trap. Thus, consider carefully who would wish to harm you. Do you have any enemies?" I pinned my eyes on his face.
"Bella, I am well aware of all of these things, so I already thought about all of these aspects, and I found nothing from these questions." He looks irritated with my questions.
"Mr. Thompson, I am aware of your professional skills, so don't get irritated with my questions. I am just doing my work because there is a difference between our perceptions." I tried to calm him down.
I understand why he finds it difficult to put his trust in a different attorney to represent him in a murder case, especially when that attorney is a woman he has never considered worthy of his trust. Since he was already a famous criminal lawyer and his professional ego denied him to rely on me, his fate left no other option for him except to rely on me.
"I am sorry; I didn't mean to interrupt your work, but I just want to say that I have thought a thousand times about all the possibilities and found nothing fruitful." He suppressed his annoyance.
"Tell me all your enemies list." I pulled out my notebook and jotted down the names of all his adversaries.
I know it's not easy to remember all the enemies since he is a famous lawyer and has so many enemies due to his profession but I want to shed light on every possible possibility to solve this case. He listed as many enemies as he could, but when I questioned him about the duration of their enmity, he shrugged his shoulders, admitting he couldn't recall the precise moment he made them his enemies.
"Well, Mr. Thompson, I have to work a lot on your case before your first hearing in court next week. So please don't withhold any information from me during this time, and keep in mind every detail that could be useful to me. Please complete the details, and I'll see you tomorrow." My assistant will collect these documents from your cell.
I handed him the notebook, in which I asked him for the time, date, and month of every detail of his personal life. He recounted his first encounter with Alicia, his marriage to her, and other significant events.
"Is this all necessary to know? I mean, rather than focusing on gathering the evidence, why do you need to focus on my past life events?" He looked at me in confusion.
"Before solving any case, I always tried to know who was behind it and what the case's motive was. I trust that you now understand my point." I rose from my seat and started to leave the visitor's cell.
The sound of his stomach rumbling stopped me in my tracks.
"Take this." I stopped and took out the food package that I had taken for him.
I'm doing this out of compassion, even though I know it has nothing to do with my profession. I once again reminded myself that I don't have any soft spot for him; it's just about this case.