Entwined With the Villainous Guardian
Chapter 151: Dying Declaration

Chapter 151: Dying Declaration

The next day, Leander was in his office gathering everything he had found out about the Abenney fire. He took it as a challenge to find out about the fire because every step he took ended up in a dead end.

His grandfather had tied all the loose ends and he never was permitted to learn about the fire.

Leander knew his grandfather did that to protect him—plausible deniability. He understood that. But he wanted to know more about the fire.

So, he went deeper in his search on the internet. They say the internet has the answers to everything. But he couldn’t find anything much about the fire except some old articles and the testimonials of those who survived the fire and the ones who lost their loved ones.

But he couldn’t get the contact details of anyone. No one had talked about something nefarious. Turns out, they received millions in compensation as they won a court case against the school.

The school?

He did not find the connection there. He got hold of the verdict of the case and looked for the reason for the fire.

The school that burnt down had a good reputation and the orphanage belonging to the church housed almost four hundred orphans. But as with many charitable institutions, the buildings were old and "not up to the modern safety standard". The main evidence provided by the plaintiff was the letter from the education department that was sent a month before the fire to the school asking them to comply with the safety standards or their license will be canceled.

The plaintiff argued that the negligence of the school board to comply with the safety standards was the reason for the fire that took the life of kids.

The school argued that they had fixed the issues and got a safety certificate within a week they received the letter. But sadly, the certificate was destroyed in the fire. Of course, the proof was destroyed in the fire that might have spread due to the negligence of the school board didn’t go well.

But Leander went through the finer details of the arguments that took him days to get his hands on. The one available on the internet was redacted a lot and he couldn’t get any details. He had to secretly pay someone to get the actual, unredacted case arguments.

Although it was a high-profile case, he could see that someone went to great lengths to cover up the finer details of this case. And he could easily guess who that would be.

It was a little tough to go through the courtroom jargon. It would have helped him if he could have asked a lawyer to explain. But he didn’t want to involve anyone else in his search for the truth.

He had the help of the internet to understand. And he got a hold of the jargon gradually.

The school board argued that the cause of the fire was an explosion. They said they had the dying declaration of a girl who was in the office of the principal at the time of the said "blast"—Melanie Filia Dei. Apparently, another child in there died—Leona Viceroy and another one who was in the principal’s office survived.

Leander Kastello.

Leander now understood why the names and the arguments were heavily redacted. Of course... Of course... his grandfather wouldn’t have allowed anyone to see the Kastello family name involved in any way with the fire.

But was he that close to the fire? How did he survive then? Why was he there?

Leona... Where has he heard the name before.

Melanie... Melanie... Why is that name so familiar? Melanie...

He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He sure would love a massage from the nimble hands of his wife. But she’d be in the kitchen. He didn’t want to disturb her.

Melanie...That name rang in his heart like a melody.

While his eyes were closed, and his mind was occupied with various thoughts, his heart opened and there he saw her... That girl with the darkest eyes he’d ever seen and beautifully short wavy hair.

With a gasp he opened his eyes and drank some scotch to wet his throat. He coughed. It was not enough for that girl to swallow his dreams, now she’s found her way into his memories too.

Am I going crazy?

He rubbed his forehead and decided to finish reading the trial details. He did not have a good feeling at all. But rather than leaving it all in limbo he decided to read it entirely to be sure.

Leander was surprised to read that the dying declaration of that seven-year-old was dismissed by the court. But was he very surprised? Not really? Buying judges is something his grandfather did religiously. After that dismissal to approve the dying declaration, the school board tried their best to bring Leander Kastello to testify. They were sure that Leander Kastello could attest to the fact that there was an explosion.

But of course, no one can bring the grandson of Peter Kastello to testify against his own family. So, that went nowhere.

The school tried to get other ways to prove there was an explosion in the principal’s office that started the fire. Experts were brought in, and a lot of tests were done on the site of the fire.

Surprise! All the "experts" said that there was no suspicion of an explosion or arson. They all unitedly confirmed that an electrical leakage from the old wires was what caused the fire and the lack of enough fire extinguishers and working sprinklers caused the fire to spread uncontrollably.

The school board was obliterated in court as they had nothing to prove their innocence. They had to agree to settle.

But then Leander noticed some other jargon. Another complaint that was filed by the orphanage was rejected to be included in this settlement case. The school said that they know the reason why the explosion happened and that girl’s dying declaration was proof for that.

But since there was no proof that there was an explosion, the girls dying declaration were denied.

What could the other incident be?