The Last Time

Chapter 14

Now...

I was about to ruin Mainane Jackson's day, and therefore make my own day. I walked into the courtroom with a big smile on my face and smiled right at him as I made my way to where my client was already seated.

"Good morning, Mpemba." he said with a sly and confident smirk. What a fake man. I knew he was stressed on the inside, evidenced by the question he asked me when I smugly nodded in response to his greeting. "What's this I hear about you submitting new evidence for the case?"

"Why don't you just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show?" I said sweetly. "It will be a good one."

The normal court proceedings commenced and I was ecstatic when the judge turned a page at his table, saying, "Miss Mpemba. I see here you have entered new evidence. Please present."

"Yes, your honour." I said, standing. "Two months ago, my client's shattered phone was retrieved at the scene of the crime. I sent it in for analysis and have received data that suggests that Sylvia here was indeed forced into a relationship with the defendant."

I used the remote in my hand to present the first few messages that had been retrieved onto the overhead projector.

"As you can see," I started, "this first thread of messages shows threats that my client received from the defendant thirteen months ago. He threatened to retrench her father and to seriously harm her mother if she refused to move in with him."

Members of the jury started to mumble amongst themselves. Mainane Jackson's jaw had dropped to the floor, his wide eyes staring disbelievingly at the loveless words on the screen.

"The next piece of evidence is a recorded phone call that discredits the defendant's claim that he had no hand in Sylvia Gwembe's decision to drop out of high school."

The cavernous room was quiet as the recording started to play, my sixteen year old client shedding tears beside me as she probably relived trauma from hearing the horrible things this man had said to her.

She'd been manipulated, deceived and forced into unspeakable things by a rich man whose name was on her father's salary every month. She'd been cornered into giving up her youth and innocence to a man who was nearly double her age, a man who'd acted under the assumption that the law was on his side, and as I stood there presenting even more incriminating evidence against the abuser, I took my time delivering the blows that I just knew would send him to prison for a long time.

"The last piece of evidence I'm submitting is this thread of text messages that shows the defendant instructing Sylvia to delete their chats. Sylvia did as she was told, but kept all these screenshots in a password-locked folder on her phone, and today, I hope her quick-wittedness awards her the justice she deserves." I said those last words looking right at the jury, making eye contact with a few of the people there to emphasize my point.