A Cunning Courtroom Threat

He caught me just as I stepped out of the lift outside a small civil in North Auckland small claims courtroom. I didn't see him at first ' just felt a fist twist into the front of my shirt and smelled the metal tang of panic before I registered the short knife in his other hand. He was her new boyfriend, the one who thought loyalty meant violence. 'I'm your nemesis,' he hissed, pulling me closer. 'Tell your story in there, and I'll carve you open.' I was taking his girlfriend to court for the rent she'd never paid me ' just a few hundred owed, nothing more. I walked into the hearing anyway, palms sweating through my shirt, and told the truth. I won. Got every dollar back. I never saw him again. Funny how quiet nemeses become when the outcome isn't theirs.