CHAPTER THIRTY THREE – THE TRIAL OF THE CRAZY EX

The courtroom was a study in tension, the air thick with anticipation. Karina sat rigid in her seat, her hands clasped tightly in her lap as she watched Matthew Hogan take the stand. His eyes, once filled with an arrogant glint, now burned with barely contained fury. The prosecution wasted no time in painting Hogan as a vengeful, unhinged man driven by a twisted obsession with Karina. They laid out the evidence – the kidnapping, the armed guards, the deplorable conditions of her captivity – in painstaking detail. Each piece of testimony felt like a weight pressing down on Karina's chest, the memories threatening to overwhelm her. But then, Hogan's defense team took the floor, and a shift occurred. With surgical precision, they began to dismantle the prosecution's case, chipping away at the foundation with well-placed doubts and carefully spun narratives. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury," Hogan's lawyer, a slick-haired man with a voice like velvet, began. "What you have heard today