Proceedings at the courtroom

A suspenseful court session was ongoing in a fully furnished courtroom, which led us to the witness box where Rhea Sanders, a girl who fell victim to an adverse circumstance, took her stand to state her claim, on the continuous hooliganism being perpetrated against her by the accused...Jason Taylor, her ex-boyfriend.

The agony from all the proceedings, as Rhea's honor was being smeared in mud, against the atrocities of the savage predator, whose only aim was to use Rhea as his endless prey in an obsession called love.

All thanks to an unknown stranger in the world today called equity and fairness, Kristine Sanders, and her sister...Rhea, had to go through an endless round of listening to the despicable accusations of the evil-minded rowdy lawyer of the opposition, who was known for winning his every case, at the risk of his opponent's shame...

As well as a painful series of emotions, resulting from an awareness of inadequacy or guilt called conscience.

"Your honor, this is strong evidence, of the CCTV footage recorded at the scene." The lawyer moved to insert a USB and the video played before the entire court.

"As you all can see, this shows the accused here..Rhea Sanders, of her willingness to take part in all the charges she had labeled on my client.

Kristine noticed it was a different video from when Rhea was willingly taking the drugs from Jason when they were still dating.

"That conniving swine!" Kristine hissed under her breath at Jason who sat next to his lawyer, as the Lawyer continued his arguments.

"I hereby demand the dismissal of this case from court.!"

Jason's Lawyer strongly argued with his closing remarks after he riled his vicious tongue at Rhea, and tormented her with baseless questions in the witness box before he return back to his seat with a contented look on his face.

He accused Rhea of how willingly she took part in all the demonic accusations she had labeled on his client, and the endless flow of Rhea's tears pierced like a double sword into Kristine's heart.

As Kristine Sanders sat amidst the courtroom where her sister's attempted murder case was ongoing, she couldn't help but wonder about the thin line between Justice and Revenge.

Since she was certain that the sentence the judge was about to proclaim wouldn't be in their favor, judging by the strong arguments the opponent put across.

The lawyer eloquently interpreted worse-case scenarios to appear like a mirage in front of an entire court, which rendered their case meaningless.

"Now the verdict! After a week of the court proceedings on the accused... Jason Taylor, of attempted drug overdose case on the victim...Rhea Sanders, with all the strong evidence presented to this court by the opposition lawyer, and the insufficient evidence from the victim's side, I hereby dismissed this lawsuit."

The judge finally concluded her verdict, and all the people in the court rose to attention before she left the courtroom.

True to Kristine's thoughts, their case was dismissed, and once more, the criminal they have all been fighting to put away behind bars, for his countless terrorism acts against her sister, was let loose to roam free.

Jason Taylor was now free and exempted from all their accusations, to continue his repeated rounds of being a thorn in Rhea's life.

Why was it called Revenge, when one takes the law into one's own hands to punish a criminal for his evil acts, while it was considered justice to gather and sit inside this furnished room, with a leading head of a judge, just to listen to the excuses of a criminal's actions.

Moreover, what pierced Kristine's heart and increased her fury was how everyone made sense of the assailant's meaningless gibberish as explanations to excuse and forgo getting punished, to be the Truth of the Justice system.

"How preposterous!" Kristine fumed as the judge walked out of the courtroom.

How could this be justice when the lawyer simply smartly used manipulations and fabricated tactics which ended up freeing the criminal on the loose to continue his despicable acts, with a lame excuse called lack of sufficient evidence. When all the shreds of evidence were staring at them right in the face.

In any case, when was evidence ever sufficient?

Was it until she buried her sister six feet under? or let her sister's life lead to complete destruction...

Is that when the evidence was enough to prosecute and hold a criminal captive, behind bars?

Are they so blind to reason, hard on hearing, or maybe afraid to show a brave face in the face of truth?

Either way, she is now done with the justice aspects and the tragic end of good and right, which always led to a fruitless end in the face of power and wealth.

The offender, Jason Taylor, was simply her sister's ex-boyfriend who had always abused her sister in their relationship, all in the name of his obsession called love. His outrageous rage on her sister this time around, led to her near death from a drug overdose.

This takes us back to where it all started when Kristine led a deeper investigation into her sister's boyfriend.

Upon her detailed investigation, she discovered that all these diabolical acts led to a beginning called 'The Truth and Dare game between Jason and his wayward friends.

It simply started with a 'Dare' a friend threw at Jason in the game to ask Rhea out and he did.

Deceived by his good looks and cute smiles, Rhea accepted to date him. So it went from a 'Dare' to a 'Let's have fun with her' and then the obsession after.

Even with Kristine's nonstop warnings, Rhea fell for him and wouldn't listen to anything evil against her newfound boyfriend, until he began to show his real character.

But still, Rhea wouldn't let go of him. She thought she might be a reason for him to change for the better, until he began to spike her drinks with drugs which she later got addicted to.

That's Rhea for you, always compassionate and sees the good in people, that was why Kristine's concerns for her and her aim to protect her sister never ends.

Kristine used to wonder whether the addiction to the drug was why Rhea wouldn't let go of Jason or break up with him, but she later found out it wasn't. Rhea has been hiding stuff from her about Jason's overzealous personality and he had been abusing her all this while.

Meanwhile, Kristine's endless determination to protect her sister from impending doom in her love life made Rhea see her as her worse enemy who couldn't stand seeing her happy.

Rhea hated her to the point that, their once connection as sworn intimate sisters, who always stuck together and never hide anything from each other, got broken into shatters.

Gradually, Kristine's apartment which she shared with Rhea went silent without conversations for days...It became like a haunted house for Rhea. Until that fortunate day...

Kristine accidentally barged into Rhea's room to have a serious discussion with her when their lack of conversation began to suffocate her and she couldn't stand it anymore.

But when she entered, she noticed Rhea hastily reaching out for the window curtains to cover herself since she was standing by the mirror staring at her bruises here and there.

Rhea became startled and covered herself before Kristine could see it.

Shocked by Rhea's strange actions, Kristine reached out and removed the curtains away from Rhea's body and she noticed the bruises around her neck, and arms.

"So this was the reason you keep dressing like a nun, to stop me from noticing these bruises? Was it Jason? Tell me, Rhea..." Kristine's voice was full of anger.

"No! I slipped and fell in the bathroom. Do you want to turn this into a big deal...It's nothing." Rhea avoided her sister and hurriedly wore her clothes.

"And what about the bruises around your neck...Don't you dare lie to me. They are finger marks. Did Jason strangle you? Rhea!" And here comes the screams and yelling.

"Stop yelling Kris... our neighbors might hear you!" Rhea motioned to halt her sister with her hand.

"What?! Are you worried about our neighbors right now? Do you want Jason to end up killing you before you realize he is a scumbag?" Kristine continued yelling.

"I have to leave...I don't need this right now..." Rhea picked up her purse and was ready to leave the apartment just to get away from her sister's yelling.

And that was when Kristine decided to risk her life to save her sister from harm, no matter the risk involved.

Hence, Kristine reached out for the antidepressant pills on Rhea's bedside table and followed behind her. She quickly moved and blocked Rhea's path before she could reach the door and exit.

Coming face to face with Rhea and looking her in the eye, Kristine took a handful of the pills into her hand and was ready to swallow them all.

"It's either him or me. After all, Jason would end up killing you, so I might as well die first since I don't want to live to see it. So choose one, Rhea. Jason or me?!" Kristine threatened as she held onto the deadly amount of pills in her hand and threatened to kill herself.

On the other hand, Rhea thought her sister was only bluffing, since she didn't get her way with breaking her relationship with Jason, and was amused at Kristine's sudden threats.

Until her eyes watched in horror as Kristine consumed the entire handful of pills into her mouth and swallowed them, to make good on her threat. And it took effect immediately.

Rhea became so shocked she could barely move her feet towards Kristine's lifeless body on the floor, and she stood rooted in the same spot trembling from the extreme agony of panic. Until she later recovered her senses to administer first-aid before she called 911.

Luckily, Kristine's life was saved in the nick of time.

At the hospital, on Kristine's bed, Rhea prayed with desperation for her sister's life to be saved and make her well again.

"I would promise to never see Jason's shadow or ever go near him, ever again! please Kris...wake up!" Rhea's tears were endlessly flowing as she held onto her sister's arm by her bed, and Kristine miraculously opened her eyes.

Kristine had been awake for a while now and even heard Rhea's solemn prayers to God and the promises to her, which brought a weak smile on Kristine's paled sick face.

"Really? you just promised, Rhea. And I would hold you on that promise once I am all better." Kristine's weak voice penetrated its sound into Rhea's ears, as she snuggled into her sister's arms.

Rhea quickly raised her head in relief and got up to hug her sister.

"Thank God you made it out alive... How could you even do such a thing? Don't ever pull that life-threatening tactic ever!" Rhea scolded sorrowfully.

"I am sorry... Did I scare you!" Kristine teased.

"Like hell! I never want to lose you. Promise me you would never try that again!" But Rhea wasn't giving into her sister's teasing.

"Okay! Promise!." This time around Kristine's weak smile became broader.

Meanwhile, Rhea began to blame herself for everything and apologized to Kristine repeatedly. They both consoled each other with Rhea still crying as they finally reconciled with harmonious smiles and happiness and held tightly to each other in a comforting embrace.

****

Kristine Sanders had to do all these to convince Rhea to break up with Jason and she succeeded. She later convinced Rhea to file a court charge against Jason, since he wouldn't leave her alone and kept pestering her.

Moreover, Kristine even talked Rhea into standing witness against him, so Jason could end up in jail for nearly attempting to end her life through a drug overdose.

But now, here they were, after everything both sisters had to go through to get what was termed Justice in the face of the law, they rather ended up in the mockery and irony of their case.

As Jason's deadly smirked at Rhea before he exited the courtroom, after being cleared of all charges against him, it angered Kristine so much that she wished she could strangle him. And she immediately regretted convincing Rhea on the witness stand to testify.

The unfair circumstances their lawsuit resulted in, took a depressing toll on Rhea's emotions, a feeling of immense pain that led to emotional distress.

The only positive aspect of their case was that Jason was given a restraining order.

A court order was given as a protective order which protected Rhea against Jason's presence in her life...from being physically or sexually abused, threatened, stalked, or harassed, etc.

On the other hand, Rhea enjoyed her freedom away from Jason for three solid years.

In those three years, Rhea underwent endless therapies through Kristine's insistence to get over her drug problems so she finally have her life back on track.

Surprisingly, Rhea pull herself together with therapy and continued her college studies, and also held onto the hope to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a medical doctor.

Rhea even found a new decent boyfriend, whose relationship with her was going smoothly.

Now, they had it all with the continuous perfect life, until they moved to stay with their Parents in Textile State.

Until now, neither of their parents is aware of everything both sisters went through during their college stay in Maxwell State, and Rhea and Kristine also hid it from them.

Unbeknownst to them, the restraining order was simply a piece of paper to Jason, who found another way to become a never-ending nightmare in Rhea's life. And it was now time for Kristine to become ruthless, into taking the path of lawlessness.

In order to protect her sister one more time, Kristine had to take the bull by the horns, take Justice into her own hands, and lead it toward the sweetest revenge.

To cut down an endless thorn that keeps growing into a person's life, one needs to uproot it from the roots. Simply cutting the branches would simply allow sunshine and rain, to make it grow once more.

So Kristine decided to delve into the real power and wealth behind Jason's ruthless ways, and how he easily escaped justice through his connections. She needed to fish out that heartless mastermind in the shadows, to be able to cut him down first, then finally clear Jason's existence from the world after.