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- Herausgeber: Twist & Tether Press
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
Defense attorney Malik Rowe built his career on truth and principle—or so he thought. When he’s asked to represent a man accused of murdering a senator’s son, the assignment seems like a career-making opportunity. But from the first moment he sees the defendant, Caleb Vance, Malik’s confidence begins to crack.
He knows this case. He’s fought this case. And yet, the official record says otherwise.
As Malik delves deeper, he discovers that key evidence has vanished, witnesses are recanting, and those in power are determined to bury the truth. His own memories begin to unravel, revealing disturbing inconsistencies that no one—including his closest allies—can explain.
Haunted by flashbacks of a trial that supposedly never happened, Malik finds himself caught between professional duty and a growing obsession to uncover what was erased. With political pressure mounting and his own sanity in question, Malik must navigate a labyrinth of lies, coverups, and personal betrayals.
But when memory itself becomes the battleground, can Malik trust what he sees—or who he’s become?
How do you fight for the truth… when you might have helped bury it?
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Echoes of the Case
A Memory Twisted. A Trial That Wasn’t.
TURNING POINTS: Twisted Tales for the Bold & Curious
Margot Elise Winters
Copyright © 2025 by Margot Elise Winters
All rights reserved. This book, including all individual stories and original content, is protected under international copyright law. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from the author, except for brief excerpts used in reviews or academic commentary, which must be properly credited.
Fiction Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Creative Tools Notice:
Some aspects of this book including cover artwork, illustrations, or other visual and creative elements were developed with the assistance of licensed generative technologies under appropriate commercial-use terms. These elements are original compositions intended solely for this publication.
Thank you for reading this book. I hope you enjoy every page inside.
Table of Contents
Echoes of the Case
Description
Prologue: The Vanishing Trial
Chapter 1: The New Case
Chapter 2: Cracks in the Record
Chapter 3: Vanishing Evidence
Chapter 4: Political Pressure
Chapter 5: Spiral into Doubt
Chapter 6: The Twist Memory on Trial
Chapter 7: Fractured Truth
Epilogue: Echoes
Echoes of the Case
Description
Defense attorney Malik Rowe built his career on truth and principle or so he thought. When he’s asked to represent a man accused of murdering a senator’s son, the assignment seems like a career-making opportunity. But from the first moment he sees the defendant, Caleb Vance, Malik’s confidence begins to crack.
He knows this case. He’s fought this case. And yet, the official record says otherwise.
As Malik delves deeper, he discovers that key evidence has vanished, witnesses are recanting, and those in power are determined to bury the truth. His own memories begin to unravel, revealing disturbing inconsistencies that no one including his closest allies can explain.
Haunted by flashbacks of a trial that supposedly never happened, Malik finds himself caught between professional duty and a growing obsession to uncover what was erased. With political pressure mounting and his own sanity in question, Malik must navigate a labyrinth of lies, coverups, and personal betrayals.
But when memory itself becomes the battleground, can Malik trust what he sees or who he’s become?
How do you fight for the truth… when you might have helped bury it?
Prologue: The Vanishing Trial
Malik Rowe
The courthouse smelled of old varnish and institutional fatigue a place where ambition had long outstripped ideals. Malik Rowe stood beneath the arch of the west wing, his leather shoes silent on the marble floor. It was nearly midnight.
A soft hum from the fluorescents overhead seemed louder than it should have been. The other wings had gone dark hours ago. Only courtroom 4C remained lit, its narrow glass panel casting a cold rectangle of light across the corridor.
He glanced at his watch. 11:52 p.m.
A folded note in his pocket had summoned him here. Anonymous.
"Come alone. 4C. You know why."
The words had gnawed at him all evening. He should have ignored it. But something deeper than logic had pulled him here a need to know.
Under his arm, he carried a familiar folder. Worn leather, the edges fraying from years of use. The court stamp on the cover had faded to a faint ghost of ink: State vs. Caleb Vance.
He shouldn't have this file. It shouldn’t exist.
Malik exhaled through his nose, tightening his grip on the folder. His knuckles whitened. He’d searched the archives. No record. No docket number. No transcript. Yet the images haunted him: his voice rising in that very courtroom, objections sustained, witnesses called, a verdict delivered.
"Did I argue this case? Or did someone plant the memory?"
The brass handle of 4C gleamed under the fluorescent light. He approached, pulse quickening. His reflection in the narrow glass tired, gaunt, eyes ringed with sleepless shadows met his gaze with something close to suspicion.
He pushed the door open.
The courtroom was empty.
Rows of wooden benches stood like silent sentries. The judge’s bench loomed beneath the state seal. On the counsel table his counsel table lay a single envelope.
Malik crossed the floor, footsteps echoing. Each step felt heavier than the last.
"This is madness," he told himself. "A prank. A trick. You’re tired, that’s all."
But fatigue didn’t explain the folder. Or the certainty gnawing inside him.
At the table, he set the leather folder down and opened it.
Pages yellowed with age. His own notes in the margins his handwriting unmistakable. Witness names. Cross-examination strategies. A timeline of events.
The date: June 14th, two years ago.
"I was in trial that week," Malik thought. "But not this trial. It wasn’t on the docket. There’s no record."
He picked up the envelope, heart thudding. It was sealed with a simple wax stamp unmarked. Inside, a single typed sheet.
"You defended him once. The record is gone. The truth remains."
A chill climbed his spine.
Footsteps echoed from the corridor. Slow. Deliberate.
Malik snapped the folder shut, eyes darting to the door. A silhouette appeared behind the frosted glass tall, broad-shouldered.
"Stay calm."
The door creaked open.
A man in a gray suit entered, face obscured beneath the brim of a hat. He walked to the defense table, paused, and set down a folded photograph.
Without a word, he turned and left.
Malik stared after him, the silence deafening once more.
Hands trembling, he unfolded the photograph.
It was a courtroom shot jury seated, judge presiding. There he was at the counsel table, mid-argument, mouth open, hand raised.
Across from him, at the defense table, sat Caleb Vance. In an orange jumpsuit.
A timestamp in the corner: June 14th, 20--.
"Impossible," Malik whispered. "I was never here. I was never counsel on this case."
Yet the photograph felt real. The memory swelled behind his eyes voices, glares, the weight of the jury’s gaze.
"Did they erase it? Did they erase me?"
The folder’s leather cover seemed to pulse beneath his fingers.
Somewhere above, a fluorescent light flickered, humming louder.
Malik stood frozen, the truth tilting beneath his feet.
Behind him, the door clicked shut.
He didn’t turn.
The footsteps in the corridor had returned closer now.
Malik closed his eyes, fingers tightening around the photograph and the folder.
"You defended him once."
The words rang in his mind, louder than any gavel.
Then darkness.
