THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 431: The Trial 4: I Have Recovered My Memory!

Dolly, now visibly shaking, tried to catch Steffan’s attention.

She hoped for any sign of acknowledgment from him, but Steffan refused to look her way even as everyone else in the courtroom turned to watch her after the minor commotion she deliberately caused in her seat

’Damn!’ She cursed under her breath and wished she had some powers to make Steffan suddenly go dumb but it was quite unfortunate as Steffan’s cold voice which instantly cut through her tense heart sounded.

"Yes."

"That’s not true!" Dolly shouted, standing abruptly as her voice cut through Steffan’s testimony. "He knows we are married! They’ve gotten to you, haven’t they? They’ve twisted everything around to confuse you. This is all a setup by those people. Please, darling, tell everyone the truth, don’t fall for their lies."

The judge’s gavel slammed down sharply. "Dr Thompson, I warned you before. Stop interrupting the court proceedings or I will hold you in contempt!"

Turning to Steffan, he said, "You may proceed."

Steffan closed his eyes for a brief second, then continued.

"She also led me to believe that I was an orphan, and that my uncle was the one orchestrating the attempts on my life."

The courtroom buzzed with murmurs as people exchanged shocked glances followed by Steffan’s father shouting angrily from his seat.

"What the heck! It’s your entire generation that are orphans and assassins, you bitch! This is absolute madness!"

The judge pounded his gavel once more, calling for order. Cheryl seized the moment and continued her line of questioning.

"So, to clarify, Dr Rosse, you were deceived, manipulated, and held under false pretenses by Dr Thompson. Is that correct?"

Before Steffan could answer, Mr Callaghan, Dolly’s defense lawyer, shot up from his seat. "Objection, Your Honor!"

"Objection sustained," the judge replied. "Ms Moore, refrain from leading the witness. Get to the point."

Cheryl nodded. "Yes, Your Honor. Dr Rosse, if I and everyone here is not mistaken, you are saying that you were an unwilling victim in Dr Thompson’s house."

"Yes," Steffan affirmed and at that moment, it seemed as if Dolly’s world crumbled around her.

Desperate, Dolly leaned in and whispered harshly to her lawyer, "You need to make him admit to what he said in prison yesterday. It’s clear those people have messed with his brain."

Mr Callaghan gave her a reassuring nod. "Leave it to me, Doc. I’ll take care of it."

"You had better," Dolly hissed. "You know what’s at stake if we lose this case."

Cheryl stepped back from the witness stand. "No further questions, Your Honor."

The judge glanced toward Mr Callaghan. "Does the defense wish to cross-examine the witness?"

"Yes, Your Honor," Callaghan replied confidently as he approached Steffan. His eyes gleamed as if he were about to pounce on a prey.

"Dr Rosse, you claim to remember nothing about your previous life and the wonderful and enviable relationship you shared with Dr Thompson. Is that correct?"

Steffan nodded. "That’s correct."

"And yet, despite your memory loss, you’ve been living with my client as her husband for months now. How do you explain that?"

Steffan didn’t flinch. "I got into an accident two months ago and when I woke up, she was the one who told me who I was and what our relationship was. I had no reason to doubt her."

Mr Callaghan smiled like a predator circling his prey. "No reason to doubt her... How convenient. And yet, now you are sitting here, claiming that everything you know is what she made you believe which to everyone here, looks like she fed you with a bunch of lies. Did she give you any reason to suggest that she was lying or perhaps did not treat you well?"

Steffan’s eyes flickered briefly to Lauren before he spoke.

"Everything changed later on," Steffan said.

"What changed, Dr Rosse? Do you mind elaborating?"

"Before this last accident, I happened to have suffered from selective amnesia due to a traumatic brain injury I got after my wedding with Lauren was interrupted and I was shot."

"During that time, Dolly was my attending doctor so I believed her when she told me what had happened. But then, I started having flashbacks on things...fragments of my real life a few weeks after. And those things didn’t match up with what she was telling me."

"Fragments?" Mr Callaghan raised an eyebrow and let out a small chuckle. "Care to tell us what these ’fragments’ were?"

Steffan paused for a moment, as if considering how much to reveal. "Faces. People. Places. None of which had anything to do with her. I began to realize something wasn’t right."

Mr Callaghan leaned in, his voice almost a whisper, though it carried through the silent courtroom. "Or perhaps, Dr Rosse, you simply found something, or someone... better."

A murmur rippled through the courtroom, and Lauren felt her cheeks burn. ’What a despicable way to make Steffan look like the bad guy!’ She hissed

Steffan’s jaw clenched. "That’s not what happened. I couldn’t have found anyone since I was always locked in. I wasn’t allowed to go out."

"Oh?" The lawyer turned back toward the jury. "So, you’re saying the woman that saved you and gave you shelter suddenly turned evil because she was trying to protect you from those who wanted you dead?"

"No one wanted me dead, except the people she arranged to hurt Lauren!" Steffan burst out.

"You are clearly not in your sane mind seeing you have no memory,"

Mr Callaghan hoffed.

"You claim to have lost your memory, how do you know who Lauren was and the things that happened before now? Have you been brainwashed?"

"I have recovered my memory!"

"If you have, you wouldn’t allow yourself to be manipulated into biting the very hands that fed you, picked you up when you were left to die. Did you also lose your conscience along with your memory?" Mr Collaghan rattled on, clearly missing the important point.

"Objection!" Cheryl shouted.

"Objection sustained. This is my last warning to you Mr Callaghan. Keep your questions relevant to the case at hand." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

’Wow, he was damn good,’ Lauren had to admit. He was very good at manipulating people to the extent of making the victim look like the predator.

She couldn’t imagine how he’d just twisted every statement, every piece of evidence, just enough to leave a sliver of doubt. It wasn’t enough to derail their case, but it was enough to make the entire courtroom shift uneasily in their seats.

Meanwhile, Dolly, who had picked up on the main point suddenly felt a sudden chill.

’Steffan had recovered his memory? No! He couldn’t have. But wait, was it partial or his full memory?’ A sense of dejavu crept over her and she felt her world crumbling down before her.

"And when did you become aware that Dr Thompson had no legal claim over you, that she had essentially kidnapped you... using my learned colleague’s insinuations?" The voice of her useless lawyer broke into Dolly’s thoughts and she tried to refocus on the case. Maybe she didn’t hear Steffan well.

Steffan’s voice tightened. "It was when I regained my memory," she heard Steffan repeat to her utter dismay.

"I realized she’d taken advantage of my condition and pretended to be my wife, she even tried to keep me from regaining my memories."

"Wait... did you say you’ve regained your memory?" Mr Callaghan asked, finally catching on.