There was something about a courtroom that felt like the inside of a wound sterile, quiet, and pulsing with pain no one could see.
I sat in the front row, beside Aurora. She was quiet, but I could feel her trembling.
Her hand was wrapped around mine, fingers ice-cold.
She hadn't said much on the way here.
She didn't need to.
Her silence screamed louder than anything else.
Across the aisle, the media's cameras were shut off per court order, but that didn't stop the buzzing. The tension. Everyone knew what this hearing meant. Not just for Aurora. Not just for Luis. But for justice itself.
Because the system… it had failed her once.
It wasn't going to happen again.
Aurora let out a shaky breath as the bailiff called the court to order.
"All rise."
We stood.
The judge entered.
Not Judge Javier, of course. She was nowhere to be found, because she was never real to begin with.
Bianca. Her real name echoing now in our heads like a punchline to a sick joke.
All those months Aurora trusted her.
All those years she thought Bianca was her safe space.
My jaw clenched. I kept my hand tight over Aurora's. If i let go now, she'd slip.
I knew that.
And she knew i wouldn't let that happen.
The prosecution team was prepared.
The evidence we had gathered, photos of Julius' room, the obsession board, his logged surveillance of Aurora for over a decade—was already in the court's possession.
But today's hearing wasn't about Julius.
Not yet.
It was about Bianca.
She had been arrested the night of the raid, too stunned to run after seeing her double identity exposed.
Today, she would speak.
And beside her, protected by security, was Selena.
God, Selena.
When we found her in that abandoned villa, bruised but alive, something in Aurora shattered again, but differently. Relief. Guilt. Fury. She cried so hard she couldn't breathe. I held her all night.
Now, as Selena stepped into the witness stand, Aurora's grip on my hand grew tighter.
Selena looked different.
Her signature red lipstick was gone.
Her cheek had a faint bruise.
But her eyes, they had not changed. Still sharp. Still full of fight.
The prosecutor gave her a nod.
She inhaled. Then, she spoke.
"I was taken weeks ago. I was on my way to meet the NBI for questioning… when a black SUV blocked my car. Men pulled me out. I fought, but they had tasers. When i woke up, I was in a house i didn't recognize. Tied to a chair."
Aurora stiffened beside me.
"They didn't know i was awake. I heard them talking."
Her voice wavered slightly, but she didn't stop.
"It was Bianca. And Julius."
Whispers echoed in the courtroom. Even now, hearing it laid out felt surreal. Like we were still in some grotesque movie.
"They were arguing. Bianca was yelling… saying she wanted everything to be over. That Aurora should've been dead by now. That Luis shouldn't have overheard anything."
Selena's throat bobbed.
She looked toward us.
Directly at Aurora.
"She said… and i quote: 'If Aurora had just died in that party, none of this would've happened. But no Luis had to play hero. Now we have to clean it all up.'"
Aurora's nails dug into my palm.
She was crying quietly.
I leaned slightly, shielding her from the eyes behind us.
Selena's voice dropped.
"They were planning to massacre the entire guest list that night. Not just Aurora. Julius said it was easier that way, less risk. They'd pin it all on a gas leak, or a drug ring, or anything that could buy them time. But Luis… Luis heard them. And before he could speak, Julius injected him with MDMA. They thought it'd make it look like an overdose."
The room fell silent.
Selena looked down.
"I tried to fight them, but they beat me. Tied me to a pipe. I would've died in that house."
She paused.
"But someone found me. Lance. And because of that, I get to tell the truth today."
The judge nodded. "Thank you, Ms. Selena."
Then came the part no one expected.
Bianca stood up. Her lawyer tried to stop her, but she raised a hand and said flatly, "No. I want to speak."
Aurora turned toward the woman who once managed her schedule, styled her wardrobe, answered her calls.
The woman who faked a judge's identity.
Who nearly ended her life.
"I'll testify," Bianca said. "I don't need a deal. I just want to say it."
Permission was granted.
She walked to the center like a ghost. Her hair was uncombed. Her lips pale.
"I hated her," Bianca began, staring at Aurora.
Aurora didn't flinch.
"Every… single time something went right in my life, Aurora took it."
People gasped.
The judge raised a brow.
"She didn't know it. Of course she didn't. Because everything was handed to her. I watched her get movie roles i auditioned for. Endorsements i dreamed of. I watched people fall in love with her without her even trying."
She smiled bitterly.
"I met Julius when i was twenty-one. He was already obsessed with her. I thought if i could be near her, I could be enough. For him. For myself. So i applied to be her manager."
Bianca laughed once.
"The irony, right?"
She was shaking now.
"I planted the MDMA vials. I created the perfect trail. All of it pointing to me. Because i knew no one would question it. And if they did… I had Judge Javier to hide behind."
She paused.
Her next words broke something in the room.
"Luis didn't deserve to die. He was a good person. He tried to save her. That's why we killed him."
Aurora buried her face in my chest and sobbed.
Bianca didn't cry.
"She ruined everything i wanted. And if i couldn't have her career, her fame, her people… I thought i'd take everything down with me."
Bianca's words lingered in the air like smoke after a fire, heavy, acrid, suffocating.
Aurora was curled into me now, her body trembling with the kind of pain that came from betrayal you never saw coming. My hand stayed firm on her shoulder as i stared at the woman who had just confessed to everything.
And still… she looked proud.
No tears.
No regret.
Just a bitter smirk, as if bringing Aurora down, even for a few months was enough to make her life meaningful.
"Thank you for your testimony," the judge said coolly, face unreadable. "Court will take a recess before proceeding to sentencing."
The gavel echoed once.
And just like that, people exhaled.
But i couldn't.
Because Aurora hadn't moved.
Her face was still buried in my shirt, and I could feel it, the quiet sobs she was trying so hard to contain.
Like she didn't want to cry in front of the people who once doubted her. As if showing this kind of grief made her weak.
I leaned down, whispered just for her.
"You don't have to hold it in."
She didn't say anything.
Just breathed deeper. Slower.
We didn't leave the courtroom immediately.
Neither of us wanted to face the reporters waiting outside.
So we sat, in the farthest row, until the hall emptied and even the echo of whispers had faded.
Then she spoke.
"I trusted her."
Her voice was raw. Barely a whisper.
"I trusted Bianca with everything, Lance. She was in my house. She picked my outfits. She held my phone when i couldn't. She knew my passwords. My family. She knew me. And she still… she still—"
"She's gone now," I said quietly. "She's never going to hurt you again."
"But she already did," Aurora said, finally lifting her head. Her cheeks were streaked with tears. Her lipstick smudged. But god, she was still the most beautiful thing i'd ever seen.
"She already did, Lance. And it's not just her. It's all of them. Everyone who left. Everyone who turned their backs. Everyone who doubted me. I lost everything. For what?"
I looked her in the eye.
"For the truth."
Her lip quivered. "The truth doesn't bring Luis back."
I reached for her hand again.
"No. But it's the only thing that can make what happened to him mean something."
Silence again. Then her voice broke—
"I saw his mom in the hallway today."
I blinked. "What?"
"She was here. Luis' mom. She didn't say anything. She just looked at me. And I couldn't— I couldn't breathe."
She was crying again.
No longer hiding it. Not from me.
"Do you think she blames me?"
"No," I said instantly. "No, baby. No one blames you. Luis made a choice. He saved you because he loved you."
I wiped her tears gently with my thumb.
"And i know if he were here… he'd say it was worth it."
Aurora nodded. Barely.
"But it still hurts."
I nodded, too.
"I know."
We stayed like that for a while.
Two people who had been bruised too much, but still choosing to sit in the middle of the wreckage because running had never been our style.
Eventually, the judge returned.
The courtroom filled again.
And Bianca, in handcuffs now, stood before the bench.
"Due to your voluntary confession, the evidence corroborated by Ms. Selena and multiple agents, and your admission of conspiracy to commit murder, illegal possession of narcotics, identity fraud, obstruction of justice, and attempted homicide, this court sentences you to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."
No one clapped.
There was no victory in this.
Only closure.
Bianca didn't react. She just smiled cold, hollow and walked off with the guards.
As if she had wanted this ending all along.
The moment the gavel hit, Aurora turned to me.
"Can we go now?"
I nodded.
We exited through the back hallway, escorted by NBI agents. We were told reporters were waiting outside. Hundreds of them. But they'd protect us.
I didn't care.
Let them talk.
Let them take pictures.
Let them finally know the truth.
Because the woman walking beside me, hand in mine, makeup smudged, heart shattered but still beating was the one they tried to destroy.
And she was still standing.