Chapter 4 The Fall

• Joachim's pov
• “Mr. Knight, the court made a decision. The judge's voice cut through the icy and decisive. “We rule in the defendant's favor.”
• I swallowed hard and couldn't believe what I was just hearing. The blood immediately drained from my face, and I was blinded by anger.
• I hardly noticed them. The judge kept looking at me and said,
• “ Guilty on all charges.”
• Given the cracks that had just appeared in my flawless armor, he might as well have been peering through me.
• In a decisive manner, the gavel fell. This was the second time, and I didn't see this coming. I exhaled and shook my head and my heart almost skipped a beat.
• I, Joachim Knight. The greatest lawyer in town. And my defeat was blinding. As people started to leave, I could hardly hear the shuffle of feet or the rustle of papers. As he gathered his belongings, my opponent, a shady middle-tier lawyer who ought to have been a footnote in my career, grinned smugly.
• His arrogance was a kick in the face, but it made no difference. The gnawing sensation in my stomach was the only thing that mattered at the moment.
• “Mr. Knight?”
• I was startled out of my daze by a voice calling. I turned to see Claire, my secretary, standing in the rear of the room, her worried eyes wide. She came up slowly.
• “Are you okay?”
• “Do I look okay?” I asked sharply more than I meant to.
• She frowned but she didn't retreat.
• “Just let it slide.”
• “That’s not the point Claire.”
• I interrupted my voice icy.
• “This is the second time, and I'm fed up already.”
• I didn't want pity. Words that were meaningless were not what I wanted. All I wanted was an opportunity to make things right and prove to everyone, including myself, that this was an isolated incident.
• This was about the rifts in the reputation I had worked so hard to cultivate over the years.
• The fractures are now visible to the entire world.
• “I'm done here.” I turned away and whispered, but the defense lawyer moved in front of me and blocked my way.
• “Hi Knight.”
• He had a smug and completely unbearable smile on his face.
• “Heart break, huh?”
• I didn't even want to give him a look.
• "Get out of my way," I said, my voice dropping to a low, dangerously calm timber. I could hear the triumphant, fluttering pulse in his throat and had to fight down an instinct far older and darker than simple anger.
• “Oh, come on,” he added, prolonging it as though he was relishing the occasion. “Enjoyed it all through, yeah?”
• I wanted to punch him.
• “It's nice seeing you here, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in court next week.” He grinned and I wished I could punch him.
• Anyway, he should enjoy his little victory while it lasts.
• I gave the man a last disgusted look and walked out of the courtroom. As if to punctuate my failure, the doors slammed shut behind us with a loud thud.
• —-
• My office was a blur
• I couldn't think clearly, I needed something to clear my head and I felt like pounding my fist into the wall behind me.
• Claire said something, presumably in an attempt to reassure me, but I never heard it.
• The roar of disappointment in my own head drowned out everything else. How had I, Joachim Knight, lost a case? More importantly, how had I allowed it to have such a negative impact on me?
• Claire shut the door behind us as we arrived at my office and I hardly gave her a glance. Without asking if I should, I went straight to the bar, grabbed the closest dark green bottle and poured myself a drink. I didn't care that my hands trembled a little while I held the glass, the red liquid dancing. A red liquid everyone thought was red wine.
• I needed something to take my mind off of my defeat.
• “Calm your nerves, sir.”
• With the glass in hand, I turned to look at her. “Claire, there is more than one loss. This case was unusual. Everything was this….
• I shook my head trying to find the right words.
• “You can bounce back,” she said in a steady voice, but I could see that she was worried. “People still have faith in you." Too much has been built for you to collapse now.
• I didn't say anything at first as I turned to look out of the floor to ceiling window. I knew that I had presented so well, I could feel the crowd staring at me with admiration before judge Maxwell Lark spoke. For the past two weeks, the cases I had presented were nothing to him.
• I missed Judge Sable. He was old and wise, calm in making decisions, not like Judge Maxwell, who felt like I had stolen his kidney or something, and I knew that deep down, he might be doing this on purpose and making me look so like I had danced my way through law school.
• I gulped down everything in the cup and felt angrier than before.
• I didn't blame him, it was because the first judge had retired, and he had taken his place and made me come second because he thought I was a playboy.
• For years, I had built my career, climbing the ladder of success to become the most renowned lawyer in Manhattan.
• But there was something else no one truly knew, and I had kept it hidden for the past twenty years.
• I refilled the glass as I turned to see Claire still staring at me.
• I took a sip from my glass as I thrust my hands into my pocket. The secret of my nature—that of a vampire— was a burden I'd carried for nearly six centuries. Finding my place in the midst of humans, moving on every few decades, covering it all up under the layer of a tailored suit and a handsome face wasn't difficult.
• What was difficult was Maxwell Lark, smiling at me and saying.
• “Objection overruled.” And making me look like I work in a circus.
• “You can have two days off,” I said to her.
• She sighed as she pulled out a manila envelope.
• “There's a case, do you want to take it?” My secretary asked.