Page 66 of The Arrogant's Redemption

"All right, Marla. Here’s my question: do you have any enemies?"

"What?"

"From the moment I took on this case, it struck me as rather unusual. We know you didn’t push Mrs. DeCarlo down the stairs. Unless it was the maid herself who committed the crime, why would she falsely accuse you?"

"No. Anilla, the maid who accused me, was in the kitchen with me at the time Mrs. DeCarlo fell."

"Which leaves us with the possibility that she was paid by someone to lie about seeing you push the old woman. Probably the real criminal."

"Whatever the reason she agreed to testify against you, she got what she deserved in the end," Badger says—and silently, I agree.

I’m not quick to forgive, and I won’t pretend I’m sorry that woman is dead. She stole nearly a year of my mother’s life, and if it weren’t for Mr. Berardi, who knows what would’ve happened if she’d gone to trial?

"I don’t have enemies. The people I know are limited to the citizens of this small town. As for friends from my past—not that there were many—I lost touch with them years ago, back in North Carolina."

"But my gut tells me this wasn’t just a case of someone pushing an old lady and blaming the first employee they could find. I think it was targeted at you."

My mother turns pale, but the lawyer offers a reassuring smile. "Don’t worry, Marla. Now that I’ve taken your case, I won’t stop until I uncover the truth. You have my word."

1 Some prestigious law firms offer a tiny amount of "pro bono" services in very special cases, working for free.

Lazarus

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

One year and seven months later

"So, is it finally over?"I ask during a video call with Matheus Berardi, the lawyer I secretly hired to defend Alexis’s mother. He’s an old friend of my father’s.

"Yes. You know I can’t discuss the case with you, but what you need to know is that Marla Gillis is, as of today, a free woman."

"That’s not enough. She lost almost a year of her life away from her daughter. They need to compensate her."

"Yes, we’ve already filed a civil suit against the DeCarlo family."

I nod. "And what about the death of the maid who accused Marla?"

"Nothing yet." He shakes his head and smiles. "You seem to know as much about the case as I do."

He has no idea. "I just wanted to make sure everything was being handled, so I hired a few investigators to find out what they could about the woman who made the accusation."

He stares at me through the screen, the way he often does since I hired him, like he wants to say something but remembers what I asked: to stick strictly to updates on Alexis’s mother. "You’re never going to tell me what your connection to the two of them is?"

"No. That’s not important. What matters is that an innocent woman is no longer being accused of a crime she didn’t commit."

"What I’m about to say has nothing to do with the actual case, just the bigger picture. It’s not confidential, since it’s more of a hunch I shared with Marla. And since you also seem interested in uncovering the truth, even hiring your own investigators, maybe you’ll find an answer. I think someone used Mrs. DeCarlo’s death as a means to an end."

"What?"

"I believe Marla Gillis has enemies. Maybe just one, even if they’re hidden. That whole thing wasn’t random—it was planned. But despite all my research, I haven’t found anything."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Honestly, I don’t know anymore. I turned her past inside out. Despite the hardship in her life, there’s nothing that discredits her."

"I never thought to look at it that way. I always assumed it was a killer trying to pin the blame on an innocent person."

"That’s not what I believe, but I can’t explain the reasoning behind my theory without revealing confidential information about my client. Still, if you come across anything in either her or her daughter’s past, it might help. My people have already exhausted nearly every lead."

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