---- Chapter 21 Harper Griffin POV: The days leading up to the trial were a whirlwind of legal strategy sessions and witness preparations. Through it all, a small seed of doubt, planted by Adler's final, venomous words, began to sprout in my mind. Keaton was a private man, and | realized | knew very little about him beyond his role as my lawyer and savior. The night before the trial, he took me to a small, quiet coffee shop. He had rented out the entire place for the evening. There, surrounded by the rich aroma of roasting beans, he finally told me. "Adler was right about one thing," he began, his eyes dark and serious. "| wasn't entirely truthful with you about who | am." | held my breath. "North Star Developments... my family's company... was nearly destroyed by Adler Irwin ten years ago. He used underhanded tactics, corporate espionage... he almost ruined my father." He looked at me, his gaze direct and filled with a vulnerability | had never seen before. "When your case came across my desk, | saw an opportunity. A chance for justice. For my family, and for yours. | admit, my initial motivations were not entirely ---- pure. It was business. It was revenge." He reached across the table and took my hand. "But then | met you, Harper. And it all changed. This stopped being about revenge and started being about you." | looked into his honest, caring eyes and | believed him. "You don't have to explain, Keaton," | said softly. "| know who you are. You're the man who offered a piece of himself to save a child you didn't know. You're the man who stood by me when | had nothing. | don't care what your last name is, or how many companies you own. | trust you." His thumb stroked the back of my hand, a gesture of infinite tenderness. "And | trust you." The trial was a bloodbath. With Mr. Jiang's damning testimony and the mountain of financial evidence we had uncovered, Adler's defense crumbled. The first verdict came in: guilty of corporate fraud and sabotage. He and the Jiangs were ordered to pay a staggering amount in damages, enough to restore the Griffin Firm to its former glory. Adler, arrogant to the last, immediately filed an appeal. That was when | released my trump card. | leaked the video footage from the hidden cameras in the basement where he had held my parents captive. The story went viral. The public outcry was a tidal wave of fury. # JusticeForGriffin trended for a week. Adler Irwin went from a disgraced businessman to a national pariah overnight. ---- His powerful PR team couldn't contain the inferno. Old business partners turned on him, leaking more evidence of his financial crimes to the press. The house of cards he had so carefully constructed collapsed in spectacular fashion. The final verdict was swift and brutal. For illegal imprisonment, torture, and a litany of financial crimes, Adler Irwin was sentenced to thirty years in a maximum-security prison, with no possibility of parole. The police detective on the case called me a few days later. "He's been asking to see you," he said, his voice tired. "He won't stop. He says he won't cooperate until he can talk to you one last time." | smiled, a small, sad smile for the man he might have been, for the love | thought we had. "| won't be seeing him," | said. "But please give him something for me." | sent a courier to the station with a small, flat envelope. The detective called me back an hour later. "He's quiet now," he said, a note of confusion in his voice. "He's just sitting in his cell, staring at it." The gift was simple. It was our official wedding photo, the one from the marriage certificate. The only photo of us that had ever truly existed. | had torn it perfectly in half. A promise | had made to myself on my wedding day: if he ever broke my heart, | would tear this picture in two, a symbol that we would be strangers in this life and the next.