"Mother!" Anne screamed. She rushed to her side to help her. The lawyers of the team also hurried to help Lily. People on the back rose to their feet to see the drama that was unfolding in front of them.

"Mother!" Anne shouted once more. "We need to take her to emergency," she said to Hertz with urgency in her eyes. "I want to take her to the hospital. You should ask the judge to stall the proceedings for now." Her plan was to get out of the courtroom along with her mother, gather sympathy from the public and then run away, abscond from this place forever. She looked at Helena with an intense stare and Helena understood her plan. A faint smile came to her lips and she nodded.

​​

Helena scurried to Lily. She caught her arm and then goaded Hertz to plead the judge to stop the trial immediately.

Amongst the pandemonium, Coombes was actually contemplating to stall the trial. Everything happened so quickly. Lily could have got a heart attack or she just fainted from stress.

"Your Honor, we would like to take my client, Mrs. Wyatt to hospital emergency now," said Hertz. "Can you please give us recess?"

"Yes, Your Honor, please!" Anne wailed. "My mother needs immediate attention." She had to press the judge so that he took hasty decisions. She wanted him to make one mistake and she would take it from there.

""Your Honor, please grant us just one hour recess. Lily is really unwell," said Helena with a fresh trail of tears coming from her eyes. Her face was scrunched up in pained expressions as if she was the only one who felt all the misery Lily was experiencing. At the same time if Coombes didn't agree to her request, he would be in a difficult situation, which might affect his career. If that happened, chances were that another judge would replace him. So yes, it was important for her to force him to take a quick decision in her favor.

Everything was happening lightning fast. In his entire twenty years career, Coombes hadn't faced this kind of situation. He was one of the most notable judges of the county and the state. He was shrewd and known for his acumen. But this situation was challenging him to the utmost.

His decision came amongst the direst situations. He threw down his gauntlet. "Hertz, ask your team to escort Mrs. Wyatt to the hospital. There is an ambulance waiting for her already on the outside." As he said that, two paramedics came dashing inside the courtroom. They shoved the crowd to reach Lily Wyatt and as soon as they reached her, they transferred her to the stretcher and straddled her to it securely. They picked her up and started to hurry out. Anne and Helena followed them but Coombes hollered them. "Where are you two going?"

Helena and Anne ignored the judge trying to act as if in a frenzy. "Guards!" Coombes ordered, "Do not allow defendant Helena and Anne to walk out of the court. If they do so, they will be held for contempt of court!"

The two ladies sprinted behind the paramedics hoping to get out. Even though they had heard what the judge just said, they wanted to run out and this was their chance. The paramedics reached the door of the court and the guards opened it. However, as soon as they were out of it with Lily, they closed the door on Anne's face so heavily that Anne stopped in her tracks to avoid banging into it. She stared at the closed door on her face with a blank expression. What just happened? "Let me go," she growled. Helena came and stood right beside her. "You must let us go," she looked at the public for sympathy. But what happened was something she had never anticipated.

Gayle, who was sitting on the last seat, walked up to them. "Go back and sit in your places for the trial to continue," he snarled. "You heard what the judge just said." He knew that the crowd was watching him, so he added, "If you leave, you would be held in contempt of court and jailed easily. Your only chance is to go back and face the trial. Lily is in better hands now." What he meant was that she was out of their clutches and they could no longer use her for their escape. "This judge has a sharp eye for criminals like you."

The police officer who was standing there came up to the two women and urged them to go back.

Seeing there was nothing much they could do, the two had to walk back. Their last hopes for fleeing this place dashed sooner than they had formed it. While they walked back, one of the people in the crowd said, "Nice way of trying to escape!"

Hertz was on his wits end when Helena and Anne came back to sit. Half of his team had followed Lily outside and half of them were there. He scowled at them, "You two are going to behave now else even I will drop this case."

From the corner of her eyes Helena looked at Dawn. She was still sitting as cool and composed as a small creak in the forest. It was impossible to read her what was going on behind that innocent face of hers. Helena realized that Dawn had weaved a web so intricate that it was impossible to tear it. David had gone to her side and that was the biggest slip they had had. If David stayed on her side, this wouldn't have happened. But they treated him like scum. If Anne had signed the divorce papers, this wouldn't have happened. She fought tears in her eyes. She remembered how she had poisoned Clare and she had died in a miserable condition. But what Dawn did to her was even worse. She made sure that she died each day of her life in jail.

Daryn was smiling away.

Anne sat back, her mind frozen, her limbs shaking.

Judge Coombes said, "Please continue with the trial. I want this finished today!" He looked more determined than before.

Hertz wasn't in the position to question David any further, so he asked Geoffrey to continue.

The trial continued.

"Mr. McDow, you were saying that you were simply the Chairman who was given salary and other than that you never had any say in the matters of the Company?" asked Geoffrey.

"Yes, that is true."

"Then how do you know what they were doing? Because they never told you anything?"

"As the Chairman, I had access to every information the Company holds. That was one thing none of them could withhold because in the end it was me who was answering to the shareholder, investors, customers and clients. So yes, I knew about every decision they took, because all of them had to go through my seal or my signatures or my email."

Anne looked up at the ceiling. She could feel the disaster.

"That means you knew about the bribes and bid rigging too?" Geoffrey was on a rampage.

"Yes I did," he said.

Geoffrey pointed to a man sitting a little far behind. "Do you know him?"

David's gaze went to Hans Müller.