36.

Xander
It's week two of the trial, and Nikki is being called up as a witness today. I was nervous. I didn't think it was a good idea for her to be under so much stress, after all, she was pregnant and the last couple of days had put her under a lot of pressure.

"Babe, please just listen to me, I don't think this is a good idea."

Nikki groans and rolls her eyes, "Xander, I'm not doing this with you again."

"I agree," Charles says from the front seat.

"It's the only way we can get this case to work in our favour," Nikki says, "We need to do this. I need to do this."

I sigh, "Fine, but the moment I sense any stress coming from you, I stop the whole thing."

She nods, "Fine."

The car stops outside the courthouse, and we jump out of the vehicle, officers, and security guards immediately surround us, this has been our lives for the last two weeks. It's been a whirlwind for us all, I'm used to being in court, but Nikki and her family haven't been taking it well, especially with all that we are now learning about Aiden.

According to evidence, he's being implicated in several corruption cases with the government and a lot of other private entities in South Africa and outside. He's stolen over a billion dollars in bribery, fraud, and money laundering. Other cases include murder and rape.

We are in the courthouse, and we are walked to the courtroom, once inside we find Aiden sitting in his usual spot with his hands and knees cuffed. This time around there is something weird about him, he has a cocky grin on his face when he turns and looks at us, he gives us to win and then turns back to look at his lawyer.

"Something is right about this guy today," Damien whispers to me.

"I know, I don't think today is going to end well."

"Let's keep a positive mindset, I know it's hard."

I give Damien a smile, and he turns and faces forward. The court proceeds and Nikki is called out to the witness stand, I give her a kiss, and she walks to the witness stand.

"Do you Nikiwe Inam Mthethwa pledge to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"

"I do," she replied and sat down.

"Defense, are you ready?" the judge asks.

"Yes, your honour."

"How long have you known my client, Miss Mthethwa?"

"For over 10 years."

"During the time of your relationship did he ever show signs of being abusive in any way?"

"Yes."

Just seeing the look on her face when she said yes, hurt me. What did he do to her?

"But you've never seen him get violent with any other woman?"

"No."

"Miss Mthethwa, Mr. van Rensburg, has worked for you for a while, and did you not notice from either your finance department or any other department that he was stealing from the company?"

"No there wasn't. Not until recently."

"But when we looked at the evidence, we see that every month there is a suspicious amount of money that is taken out of the account to an offshore account under the name Betty Cooper. Do you know who that belongs to?"

Nikki looks down at her hands, and then she looks at me, "It's mine."

"Why do you have that account?"

"It's for my personal usage, it's where I pay half my salary into, like a savings account."

"Miss Mthethwa, this account, is being used by another individual and, according to our investigation. It's being used by a man who is using your father's name."

The courtroom tenses. Her father, didn't her father die?

"I'm not ready to answer that question," Nikki says defensively.

"Okay, then maybe you answer this question for me, did you or did not ask my client to make those transfers into your offshore account from time to time?"

Nikki closes her eyes, "I did, but these were very specific payments, and he has only done them at least three times."

"Miss Mthethwa, we also have proof that you also asked Mr. van Rensburg to pay off investors so that they can give you contracts and work."

Nikki shakes her head, "He always did that on his own, and I also discovered that he would pocket the money for those projects."

"Do you have any proof of that?"

"Yes, it's with my lawyer."

Nikki remained calm for the remainder of the questioning, she answered every question and didn't stutter or show any sign of fear. I admired that about her, she wasn't going to let the defense scare her into messing up or slipping but something told me that there was more to this. Aiden's lawyer had a trick up his sleeve.

"One last question, Miss Mthethwa, is it true that you were responsible for your father's murder?"

"Objection, your honour, that case was closed, and my client was exonerated."

"Just answer the question, Miss Mthethwa."

"Sustained, that case was solved and will not be brought up in this courtroom again."

"We would lie to reopen the case, we have new evidence, which implicates our star witness."

"You can do that with the police, not with me." Judge Kubeka says.

"We have your honour, and we would like Miss Mthethwa to be scraped as a witness and for the murder of the deceased to be retried."
You have got to be kidding me.

I look at Nikki and I can tell that she's not okay. I signal for our lawyer, and she walks over to me. 

"I think Nikki has had enough, she's pregnant, remember." 

Miss Kubeka nods and asks the judge for a recess, the judge agrees, and Nikki gets up from the witness stand but instead of walking to me, she makes a beeline for the door. Charles and I looked at each other confused, I picked up her purse and followed her.  I go into the hallway, and I call out to her, but she doesn't answer me.

I grabbed her arm and turned her towards me.

"Baby, what's going on? Are you okay?"

I look at her face and I see tears streaming down her face. 

"I messed up, Xander. I messed up really badly."