Claimed By The Mafia Rogue King (Snow and Cupid) novel Chapter 147

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I arrived late. A little too late because Eshan had already taken the stand, and Marlik had taken his as well.

Seated ahead as the judge was Neils White. When I stepped into the courtroom, his eyes lifted instantly, finding me first, before returning to the documents before him.

I moved quietly toward the profiling team seated in the front row. Mr. Gerald turned his head to look at me in tense silence before refocusing ahead.

“You’re just arriving now,” Quince murmured beside me.

I nodded, exhaling tiredly.

“Yes. Sorry. Did I miss anything?”

“Not much,” he replied.

I looked around. My gaze caught Dove standing with the reporters, eyes sharp and hungry for a story. Then my eyes shifted, and stopped on Marlik.

Last night flashed through my mind. The confrontation. Him and Cupid.

I sighed softly, unable to ignore how love could both save and destroy.

He loved Rasha deeply, and this, this was where that love had landed him. If only Rasha hadn’t been selfish, even enemies wouldn’t have been able to bring him down.

Cupid hadn’t come. He couldn’t. He didn’t even have permission. I didn’t need to think hard to understand why he was pulling strings from the shadows instead of stepping into this

courtroom.

The Godlike name couldn’t be stained.

I came from a family where a good name meant everything. I understood that too well.

“So your statement is that you did not kill Mr. Lins Krates?” Judge Neils‘ voice rang out, snapping me back. His attention was fixed on Marlik.

“Then why did you remain silent all these years and only appeal now?”

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Chapter 147

“That is not the proper question, Your Honor,” Eshan said firmly.

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Neils‘ eyes shifted to him. I knew that tone. Eshan wasn’t calm. Even the words Your Honor sounded strained. He had no respect for Neils White. Not a shred.

“Oh, really?” the judge replied coolly. “Ah, yes. You are the one who prosecuted this young man years ago. The one who labeled him a murderer. What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Eshan Frost?”

He glanced down at the file.

“According to these records, the first case you ever handled was Marlik Rogue’s. You prosecuted him aggressively, cornered him at every turn, until you sealed his fate. Life imprisonment. Isn’t that correct?”

The courtroom fell into rippling silence.

I didn’t know anymore whether this was a hearing or a reckoning.

My eyes drifted to my brother. Eshan Frost, dressed in the regal authority of a prosecutor. The man who studied relentlessly. Who worked harder than anyone I knew. Who never took shortcuts.

Eshan wasn’t a man who apologized. But when he did it meant everything.

Slowly, he lowered the file he’d been holding and turned toward Marlik. He swallowed.

“More than ten years ago, I stood in this same courtroom to prosecute Marlik Rogue for the death of Mr. Lins Krates,” Eshan said.

“He was stabbed twenty times. Every drop of blood at the crime scene. The knife found a mile

away.

The suicide note allegedly written by Mr. Lins, all of it pointed to Marlik Rogue.”

I held my breath. My gaze lifted to Judge Neils. His jaw tightened. He hated where this was going.

“I was in jail at that time,” Marlik’s voice broke through. “How could I commit murder while locked up?”

Logic. Plain and devastating.

Eshan nodded to Vast, his assistant, who immediately moved to set up the footage.

“A video shows you and Rasha sneaking out of the jail that night,” Eshan continued.

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Chapter 147

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“You returned four hours later with blood on your hands. Forensic testing confirmed it was Mr. Lins‘ blood. Every piece of evidence pointed to you.”

The footage flickered on–screen.

“And to seal your fate,” Eshan said quietly,

“Rasha, your only alibi, testified that she saw you commit the murder. You thumbprinted a confession. That was the report. That was the evidence this court accepted. And you, Your Honor, were the one who sentenced him to life imprisonment because you believed he deserved it.”

Eshan flipped open the file.

“We all believed Marlik Rogue was the culprit,” he said. “Until he wasn’t.”

Silence thickened.

“What we missed then, what might sets Marlik free today is one name.”

He paused.

“Feroz.”

The name settled heavily in the room. I swallowed hard.

“The statement of the deceased Rasha,” Eshan continued. “Given during interrogation on the night she died.”

Vast played out the statement.

Rasha’s words filled the screen, as well as her voice, her resentment, her bitterness. She called Marlik a fool in love. Said if only he had stayed away from her, he wouldn’t be ruined.

And then Feroz’s name appeared.

Silence reigned.

All eyes were on Marlik now. His gaze was fixed on the floor, until it lifted and found mine.

The air left my lungs.

I was the one who interrogated Rasha.

I was the last person she saw before she died.

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Chapter 147

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As a profiler, I understood women like her. Trauma survivors who learned to survive by the skin of their teeth. She spoke of being sold young as a sex slave, of pain that never left her. Trauma shaped her judgment. Twisted it.

I was a survivor too.

One night had shattered my world. The future I believed in crumbled. But unlike Rasha, I had help. I had support. People who stood beside me and pulled me back from the edge.

I was standing again now, though the ground still felt cracked beneath my feet, and I wondered if it would ever feel solid again.

“I, Eshan Frost,” his voice echoed through my thoughts, “stand before this court today with a plea.”

He faced Marlik fully.

“That Marlik Rogue be released, so we may pursue the real murderer of Mr. Lins Krates.”

Eshan turned to the judge.

“Your Honor, Marlik Rogue is innocent.” He paused. “And he deserves to walk free.”