Chapter 41

The courtroom was a stage, and I was the king presiding over a farce. The elders-those wrinkled, power-hungry relics-thought they could judge me, strip me of my birthright over a lovers’ spat. Pathetic. I sat on my chair, smoke curling from my cigarette, watching them squirm in their self-importance. My wife’s stunt at the club had given them an excuse to flex their dusty authority, but I wasn’t w