Her Mafia Prince ✔️

Chapter 28 - Start From The Beginning

Enjoy ✨

~ Gabriella's POV ~

Was it possible that everyone hated me even more after Dean's testimony?

Yes it was.

Very much possible actually.

The next day at the courthouse went by pretty quickly while Lazzero did his absolute best to plant seeds of doubt into the jury's mind. In my opinion it worked, he had enough evidence to suggest it wasn't Matteo, like Matteo's personal letters from his bank and things like that.

But it was still impossible to actually prove he was innocent which is where Adrian and Kaito came in.

Neither of them came to the courthouse on the Wednesday when it was the defence's turn to present their case. According to Kaito they did what they had to do to convince Frank to let Matteo off. I don't know how they did it, obviously they never told me. All Adrian said was that Matteo would be okay, and that was it.

So on Thursday both Angelina and Lazzero gave their closing statements in the court room and the jury left to deliberate on their decision. According to Lazzero they could come back anytime during the day. They could actually take as long as they wanted.

During this time we weren't allowed to see Matteo so we just went home and waited. I spent the day cleaning the house and making sure everything was perfect for Matteo to come back home. I even had the time to cook so I made his favourite food too.

I did anything and everything that I could to pass the time and make the day go even faster.

When Jordan called me to say that they'd come to a decision I was just lying on the floor in the living room just staring at the ceiling. This was because I didn't want to mess up all the cushions on the couch that I'd just cleaned and tidied but I was tired since it was pretty late.

By the time I got back to the courthouse and we were sitting and waiting for the judge to come back it was almost 11pm. We waited for quite a while, none of us saying a word to each other as we just sat there.

The gallery in the court room was pretty empty since it was so late at night and so only people directly affected by the case were there. Once again I wasn't allowed to see Matteo beforehand so all I could manage was a small smile to him when the guards brought him into the courtroom and he sat down next to his lawyers again.

"Please call the jury back in." I let out a deep breath when the judge finally spoke after she'd come in and she now asked a guard to bring in the jury. One by one all twelve jurors came back and the only one of them who remained standing was the foreman who was the spokesman for the jury.

"Have you reached a decision?" The judge directed her question at the foreman of the jury who nodded his head and handed an envelope to the guard. The guard took the envelope to the judge who read whatever was inside before she gave it back to the guard who took it back to the foreman.

"Please state your final decision for the court."

The foreman nodded his head before he looked around the courtroom, his eyes landing on Matteo who was staring straight back at him.

"On the charges of tax fraud, we the jury find the defendant...not guilty."

The moment he said those words I let out the deep breath that I was holding as I looked over at Matteo who was just staring into the space ahead of him.

Before any of us couldn't even stand up or say anything the judge spoke again.

"Well, then Mr De Mancuso you're free to leave. The guards will process your release."