“I’ll get rid of the bear. We can work this out. We still have a chance, don’t we?”
His voice softened as he looked at me, pleading.
The judge turned to me. “Mrs. Whitmore, do you accept his reconciliation?”
I said without the slightest hesitation. “No.”
Brandon broke out in a nervous sweat.
“Claire, I- I should’ve listened to you. Let’s not fight anymore, okay? We can work through this…”
He was starting to panic.
I remained silent.
Daniel stood and addressed the judge. “Your Honor, we request to play the second video.”
The clerk clicked again.
This time, the footage showed Brandon twirling around the room with the teddy bear in his arms.
–
Then he dropped to one knee and offered it a bouquet of flowers like a lovesick teenager.
“You take my flowers, you’re mine now.”
“I love you, baby.”
His voice was dripping with affection, sweet and delusional.
The courtroom erupted.
“What the actual hell?”
“If I saw my man doing this, I’d lose my damn mind too.”
“There’s gotta be someone inside that bear. No way this is normal.”
The clerk kept playing–one clip after another, all showing Brandon and the teddy bear… in different rooms, different positions, different degrees of madness.
The bedroom. The kitchen. The living room.
It was disturbing. Borderline obscene.
People were blushing in their seats.
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Even the judge’s expression changed–from contempt toward me, to something dangerously close
to sympathy.
He wasn’t alone. The entire room now looked at me differently.
“Brandon,” Thomas finally barked, “what the hell is this?!”
“You better explain yourself. Right. Now!”
Evelyn stared at the screen, her eyes wide with disbelief, face drained of color.
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Chapter 6
“I–I–I don’t know,” Brandon stammered, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes flicking to me with
shame and rage.
Then he glared at me–full of shame and fury–like this was somehow my fault for showing the
footage.
Madison’s eyes darted nervously.
Then she suddenly lit up, as if divine inspiration had struck.
“Brandon’s been possessed!” she blurted out, like it was the most logical thing in the world.
Even Brandon looked at her, stunned.
“What? Possessed?” he echoed blankly.
Thomas’s eyes lit up like a drowning man clutching a rope.
He never truly believed his golden boy could be so… depraved.
Madison doubled down. “A while ago, Claire invited some kind of psychic–or maybe an exorcist,
who knows–claimed it was to ‘protect the family.“”
“Ever since that weird ritual, Brandon’s been…obsessed with the bear. That can’t be a
coincidence.”
She spoke with such conviction, it was almost convincing.
“I swear, something was off,” she continued. “I stayed at their place for a few days, and every night
I heard strange noises. One night, I saw a dark figure in the hallway. I thought I imagined it–but
now? I’m not so sure..”
Thomas and Evelyn started nodding, their hope visibly rekindled.
Madison turned toward me, eyes sharp and cold as steel. “You’re heartless, Claire. Brandon gave
you everything–his heart, his name, his fortune. And this is how you repay him?”
“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it Make him look crazy, ruin his name, and walk away with
everything.”
Brandon finally snapped out of his daze–and jumped on the bandwagon.
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