By Zephyria 
“Yes. They requested negotiations immediately after the hearing.”
“Hmm, then it’ll be over soon. Understood.”
The CEO nodded casually and then turned his gaze away. It was a signal for me to leave. But I remained seated.
“Is there anything else you want to say?”
The CEO asked. I took a small breath and opened my mouth.
“I refused.”
The CEO stared at me without a word.
“Why? Were the terms not good?”
“Yes.”
I tried my best to relax my expression to avoid clenching my teeth and added calmly, “They wanted five years for third-degree murder. I refused, of course.”
“Hmm. That’s a bit much.”
The CEO frowned immediately, showing a negative reaction. I didn’t stop there and added immediately, “And that was in the hallway. Right after the preliminary hearing.”
“They didn’t even come to your office?”
I confirmed when the CEO asked again, “They said it in the hallway.”
The CEO nodded as if he understood my displeasure.
“So, what’s our proposal?”
I accepted the naturally returned question and opened my mouth.
“I was going to propose thirty years for second-degree murder, but…”
“‘But’?”
The CEO repeated the end of my sentence and frowned. I answered calmly.
“If they don’t accept, we’ll have to proceed with the trial. If their parents didn’t teach them what they did wrong, the law will have to.”
The CEO blinked as if he was dumbfounded.
“Look…”
He started to say something but couldn’t continue. I took over for him, who was at a loss for words.
“It’s a clear crime with no room for negotiation. The conditions I can offer are 30 years in prison without parole, one million dollars in consolation money to the bereaved family, and a public apology in the media expressing remorse for the crime. Nothing less. These are the bare minimum measures. If he wasn’t rich enough to hire Miller Law Firm, he wouldn’t be able to get out of prison until he died.”
“…You…”
He opened and closed his mouth several times, as if he didn’t know where to start.
“So, you’re going to indict?”
I answered briefly, “Yes,” to the CEO’s question.
“If they don’t accept my proposal.”
When I reluctantly added the condition, he made another blank expression and then sighed. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers, let out a stifled sigh, and finally managed to speak.
“Why are you making things difficult?”
The CEO repeated the lawyer’s words as if he had planned it in advance. Adding more to it.
“We don’t have enough budget.”
“They don’t show any remorse at all.”
I retorted, feeling frustrated, and he shook his head.
“Isn’t that inevitable? You know very well that Alphas are like that. What can we do? If we put them in jail every time they commit a crime, how can we afford it? The country will go bankrupt, and the citizens will riot because taxes will rise. Goodness, it’s terrible just to imagine!”
The CEO, who exaggeratedly raised and lowered his arms like in a play, cleared his throat and added as if trying to persuade me.
“There’s a limit that Betas like you and I can never reach, like the position they’re in.”
I sneered.
“Do Betas like us have to breathe twice as fast when we reach that position?”
At my words, a vein popped out on the CEO’s temple.
“I’m not joking right now!”
He finally got angry and raised his voice.
“I won’t allow any more trials. Call Davis’s lawyer right now and negotiate to a reasonable extent! The conditions you’ve set are too excessive. You have to make an offer that the other party can accept. Is that negotiation? Finish the case today. I won’t forgive you if you act arbitrarily any longer! If you don’t like it, I’ll change the prosecutor in charge right away, understand?”
Instead of answering, I put strength in my lips and stared straight at him. It was when the CEO, reading my clear refusal, clenched his fist as if he was about to slam the desk.
Knock, knock.
The sudden knock instantly eased the sharp tension. The CEO turned his head, and I also turned to the door. It was the CEO’s assistant who came in.
“CEO, I’m sorry to interrupt the meeting. A guest has come to see you…”
“Who?”
The CEO asked in a voice still filled with emotion. The assistant seemed flustered by the blunt response and hesitated before answering.
“Yes, it’s Anthony Smith’s mother.”
In an instant, the CEO’s face hardened, and he looked at me. I shook my head to indicate that I didn’t know anything about it. He groaned and opened his mouth in a subdued voice.
“Let her in.”
The assistant stepped aside, and soon a plump middle-aged woman appeared. A dull complexion with no vitality. There was a woman who had lost her child and had her whole world collapse.
“CEO, Prosecutor.”
She glanced back and forth and slowly entered with a slightly staggering gait. Both the CEO and I reflexively stood up. We were preparing to reach out in case she fell, but fortunately, she walked safely to the front of the CEO’s desk.
“Please sit down.”
The CEO offered her a chair, but she shook her head.
“I’m sorry to bother you when you’re busy. I won’t take up too much of your time.”
She continued in a voice as unstable as her gait.
“I was wondering how the trial is going… I heard that most of these cases involve negotiating with the perpetrator. But I also heard that if you negotiate, the sentence can be reduced or they can be released on probation. As you know, they’re such… a great family, so I was wondering if something might happen.”
She was as nervous as if she were a criminal waiting for sentencing. She wasn’t the one who should be punished, and even if she had committed any crime, she would have been punished enough just by the fact that she had lost her child.
The CEO opened his mouth, showing obvious discomfort.
“Ah, of course, we’ll proceed according to the procedure. We’ll do everything we can, of course.”
Unable to hide his reluctance, he avoided her gaze. She looked back and forth between me and the CEO, flustered by his behavior. I didn’t say anything and stared intently at the CEO. She swallowed hard and continued.
“Surely it won’t just fade away like this…? That man, he will be punished, right?”
Tears quickly welled up in her eyes.
“My child was really kind, but all the newspapers are insulting him. My child wasn’t like that. He never did drugs or cheated anyone. But that man, he killed my child and how could he…”
Eventually, she began to sob.
“Everyone is calling my child a slut. How could they do this?”