Chapter 27：I’ll prove you wrong! (2)

Matthew was first to wake up. He noticed that he was on Renae's bed and immediately remembered that he was supposed to sleep on the floor. He felt kind of bad about stealing Renae's personal bed space. Matthew slowly and quietly got out of her bed so he wouldn't wake her up. To make up for taking up 1/2 of her personal bed space, he went to the kitchen to make her breakfast. He took out 4 pieces of bread and added some ingredients he found in her refrigerator on one side of a piece of bread. And TADA! He made a sandwich! Matthew did the same for the other piece of bread. He took the bread and ate it. He put the other piece onto a plate and brought it up to Renae's room.

By the time he reached her room, Renae was already awake. She took the bread from Matthew's hands and ate it after thanking him. She finished it in a few seconds. The sandwich Matthew made tasted especially amazing! Matthew asked Renae where she was going to that day. She paused for a moment and said, "Oh, I'm going to the airport to meet my parents. They are coming back today." She thought of that lie in that few seconds she paused for. He nodded his head and volunteered to send her there. At the same time, she received a message from Kaiden saying that he's on the way to her house to pick her up. Renae politely declined Matthew's offer and went downstairs to wash her plate. He followed her down and was chased out of Renae's house by Renae herself. He waved goodbye to her and he sat down in his car.

Matthew didn't drive all the way back to his house yet. He only drove to the side, where Renae couldn't see him but he could see her when she leaves her house. He was interested to find out how she was getting to the airport. Was it by taxi or by bus? Or will someone come and pick her up? A few minutes later, a GranTurismo Maserati parked in front of Renae's house. Matthew couldn't see who was in the car until the person got out of the car. It was Kaiden! Renae came out of the door with her bag. Kaiden opened the car door for Renae and then quickly got back into the car. They then drove off. The sight of them driving off together upset Matthew and made him envious. His face turned red and his hands were shaped into fists. Renae rejected his offer for Kaiden! What does Kaiden have that I don't? Matthew thought angrily.

Even so, Matthew knew he couldn't sit there and sulk the entire day. He calmed himself down and drove away. Meanwhile, Kaiden and Renae rode in silence. Kaiden tried to initiate some small talk but that completely flopped. Renae was a little suspicious of him so she kept her distance.

"So how have you been? The last few days I mean," Kaiden asked, giving Renae a side long glance.

"...Good..." She responded, looking out the window.

"That's good. Did you bring the evidence?"

"Yea.."

That was just about how their conversation went.

The atmosphere in the car was very awkward. They soon reached the courthouse. The policemen involved, Ms Lee, Lana and her lawyer were already there. Kaiden parked his car and they joined the rest.

"Kaiden, Renae, we're starting soon," Ms Lee said. She wasn't wrong, they were called into the courthouse very soon. They had chosen the court trial, where the judge decides if they are guilty or not. Renae was first to go up. Lana went up on the other side and they started.

"So, the plaintiff, Ms Lana Chou, reported that Ms Renae San, the defendant, helped the police in an investigation even thought the defendant has no police training or any prior knowledge of being a policeman. She claims the same problem with Mr Kaiden Ru. She also wants to sue all the policemen involved in this case as they allowed untrained teens to help in an investigation," the judge said. He added, "Ms Chou, is this right?" "Yes," Lana responded.

"Ms San, Mr Ru, guilty?"

"I plead not guilty," Renae replied. Kaiden's reply was the same.

"Trial shall now begin. The defendants' attorney, Ms Lee, and the plaintiff's attorney, Mr Ng, please step forward and present all prior prepared evidence. First is the plaintiff's turn to prove the defendant guilty."

Mr Ng stepped forward and opened up his suit case. He pulled out his computer and said, "All our evidence are video evidence." He brought the evidence forward and played the videos which they had recorded of "Renae" and "Kaiden" helping out with the "policemen". Lana wore a smug look on her face as she crossed her arms and watched the video play.

The video ended.

"This is the proof we have against the defendant. As you can clearly see in the video, Ms San and Mr Ru are seen helping the policemen look for the criminals in their investigation. Untrained, they could've gotten injured. We're very lucky they didn't," Mr Ng said, playing the good samaritan card by making the jury and judge think that they did all this to teach the policemen a lesson for putting Renae and Kaiden's lives at risk.

"Alright, it is now the defendant's time to prove not guilty."

Ms Lee stepped forward with her evidence in hand.

"This is a recording of Ms Chou's call with her partner, whoever that might be, discussing their plans to create fake evidence in which she used today. If you look at the video carefully, you will realise the police uniforms the "policemen" are wearing are not the real uniforms. Not only that, the "Renae" and "Kaiden" shown in the video look like the real ones, but if looked at closely, is obvious that they are different people. Also, during the entire investigation, we had the criminals' phones with us and the investigation was completely unknown to the public. It was only announced after it ended. The criminals had no way of communicating with Ms Chou at all during the entire investigation. If Ms Chou has not seen them help us so much with her eyes, I suggest she doesn't accuse them."

Hearing this, the judge's expression changed. "Play the recording," he said, his brows furrowed. Ms Lee nodded and pressed play. Lana and an unknown person's voice resounded throughout the courthouse.

After which, Renae, Kaiden and the policemen were deemed not guilty! They left the courthouse and split ways. "Want me to drive you back?" Kaiden asked. "Erm... sure," Renae said. They got into the car and they were off!

"What Ms Lee said... wouldn't we be lying though? We really did help the police a lot in this investigation," Kaiden said. Renae replied, "We didn't lie, we never said that we didn't help out. The fact that Lana's evidence was fake just made the jury and the judge think that we didn't help out. It's a psychological thing." "Oh... I see," he said.

After a few minutes of silence, Renae's phone sounded. She checked it and saw that Cathy had sent her a message. Cathy had asked is she wanted to go for coffee and talk for a bit. Since Renae was free after that, she agreed. "Sorry, instead of fetching me home, can you fetch me to Starship Cafe?" She asked, her tone was still distant. "Mmhmm," Kaiden said.

He turned his car around and headed for Starship Cafe.