The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Sixty One

Well this isn't going to be fun. Today, just five weeks after the kidnapping, the trial begins. Finding  a panel of jurors who weren't biased towards us was what took the court the longest- with me, as condescending as it sounds, being so widely loved.

  That and the fact that the royal family of our closest ally was involved, along with that of the country we get along with the least. The trial will be held in the United States just to keep the whole thing organized and fair, but the jury is made up of four  Amish Americans who have stayed away from media for most of their lives, four Russians, two Canadians- and, for the first time ever- two Ordaian defectors who left immediately after the border was opened.

  All of the jurors identities have been protected for privacy concerns, and in Ordaia- Most have stayed out of fear, even with the prince's promises. For every last  one of them who wasn't a high ranking government official or one of the few people who went in and out on supply planes, it was all they knew, after all. The first ordaian juror selected was a supplier for a few years. With his public speech, we learned that all suppliers were made to wear a vest that would  track them and shoot bullets straight into their hearts if they tried to take it off or went anywhere near the u.s embassy. The other one's political beliefs are unclear, just to keep the trial truly fair, but it's not really a debate of whether or not it happened.

  Even the lawyers that have been assigned to James, prince Ahmad and everybody else involved aren't trying to argue that. They know that the best they can do is attempt to save them from death sentences.  Realistically speaking- I can see James getting out of one, but the prince? Yeah he's fucked.

  And for a second, I feel guilty for even thinking it because he is still mina's father- but that second passes as flashbacks play in my head. I can feel my heart rate quickening, and immediately swallow one of my ssri pills. Not today. If I have to look at their faces again it's going to be while staring them down, not while I'm hyperventilating.

  I could have avoided the trial, since they already have all of the necessary evidence and I was the main reason for this happening, but I asked to be there. I want to see the look on those fuckers faces when they learn the sentences in a few days to a week.

  "Are you sure you're ready for this?" I remember Kyle saying. "Because you don't... have to be. You know, it's okay to let yourself recover."

  "I'm not having a repeat of last year." I shook my head. "I'm not fucking hiding and..seeing the footage of him crying while receiving his sentence later when I can watch it in person."

  Kyle stands in the doorway now, watching me with that same worried look on his face as I do what I can to get ready, waiting on Kendra to get here with one of her designs. Now, she's living in one of the guest houses on our dc property, just a few minutes away. This dress'll be a gift. She told me she couldn't, in good conscience, charge me for it. No matter how many times I told her it was fine, that she deserved to make money off of an art piece that took her thirty hours to complete, she wouldn't take it.

I tuck my hair behind my ears, and go sit down to read. Kyle lays beside me, and I rest my head on his shoulder, his arms wrapped around me. If I can forget where we have to go in less than an hour- it's moments like these that I miss the most. When I'd finally got my top clearance and he was near the end of his mayoral term, it became rare to have more time together than while sleeping and a few minutes every now and then, so these minutes have become more and more valuable.

But just a few minutes later, there's a knock on the door, and Ella mumbles some code words that I don't understand into one of the brand new work phones secret service have been provided with. "Mona Lisa is at the horizon. She been reduced down?"