Chapter 120. Chaos Unveiled

Andre's POV

The morning air bit through my suit as I stood outside the courthouse, wrists bound in cold steel that seemed to mock everything I'd once been. Two officers flanked me—their bulk matching my own height, their expressions professionally neutral. But it was the sea of faces beyond them that made my blood run cold.

Cameras erupted like gunfire from every angle. Reporters pressed against the barriers like hungry wolves, their eyes gleaming with predatory anticipation. Some faces in the crowd wore masks of pity—those few who still remembered the man I used to be. But most? Most radiated pure, undiluted pleasure at witnessing my spectacular fall from grace. I could practically taste their hunger for my destruction, bitter and metallic on my tongue.

The betrayal cut deeper with each flash of the cameras. Stanley had assured me during his last visit that my father's influence had kept my arrest under wraps. The first hearing should have been a