Heartless People

FOUR

Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.

—Erwin Rommel

LAUREN.

"Lauren Michelle Jauregui," I said into the microphone.

"Mrs. Jauregui, Im going to get straight to the point," DiMarco said to me.

"Did you kill your wife?"

"No. I did not kill my wife." I don't know how many times I had said that bloody sentence, but I was fucking sick of it.

DiMarco turned jury and then back to me. "Thats not very convincing, Mrs. Jauregui . So can you please explain to us what your wife means to you and why you wouldn't kill her?"

"She-she drives me insane." I paused for a moment, trying not to smirk at my next thought. I forced a watered down smile instead. "Shes the only woman
I want scream at and make love to at the same time. She can make me smile with a single glance or glare. She sings in the shower and its God-awful. And when she comes out, she pretends as if it didn't even happen. She kicks me in her sleep because she doesn't understand where her side of the bed ends and where mine begins. She is bossy, brilliant, and beautiful. The reason why I couldn't kill her is because Im hopelessly in love with her. I couldn't imagine not having those moments with her. Actually, thats a lie, I can. Being locked away from her and my son is more horrendous as I could have ever imagined."

"No further questions, Your Honor," DiMarco said, as he nodded to me and allowed the asshole in the alligator shoes to step up.

I had spent the this whole time doing my best to keep a straight face, but watching him size me up made me want to stomp his face in. I bet those pretentious shoes of his could cause a good amount damage too.

"Mrs. Jauregui, you love your wife even though this was an arranged marriage?"

How the fuck did he know that?

"Excuse me?" My jaw clenched tightly at his question. I heard a few mutters from the peanut gallery, and the fucker grinned.

"Your marriage to Camila , it was arranged, correct?A way to pull the family millions together," he pressed.

"Billions, and no. Camz and I met because of our fathers, but she hated me in the beginning. She wouldn't have married me if she did not want to."

"Really? And why was that?"

The fucker. He was trying to trap me.

"In the beginning, she was misguided in her thinking as to who I was."

"And what was her opinion of you, Mrs. Jauregui?" The fucker smirked and again I had the urge to make him identifiable only through dental records.

"She thought I was a spoiled party girl who spent way too much time with the fairer sex." Im sure they got my insinuation, but saying it reminded me of a
time that felt like decades ago, instead of the few years that actually had been.

One of those mistakes was haunting me now and even aiding in this sham of a case.

Fucking Natasha.

"Did she change her mind? How did you persuade her to?" Again I tried to ignore his insinuation. But Im sure a few molars cracked with how hard my jaw
was clenched at the gall this idiot seemed to have.

"She didn't need to be persuaded. I pursued her, showed her who I was behind the lies and rumors. She wouldn't have married me if she didn't see something in me that could provide her with what she needed."

"And at the same time you would get what you needed." Again, that fucking intonation.

"Im sorry?" I asked as if I was clueless as to what he trying to say.