Chapter 10: The Trial Begins

Chapter 10: The Trial Begins

Victoria was arrested.

Daniel was charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, fraud, attempted unlawful confinement, and the suspected murder of Elena.

Dr. Mercer became a federal witness.

The Blackwood scandal spread across the country.

But powerful people had used the clinic, and they did not want the truth exposed.

Witnesses changed their stories.

Files disappeared.

One judge assigned to the case had a grandson admitted to Blackwood under suspicious circumstances.

Victoria’s lawyers argued that she was manipulated by Daniel.

They painted her as a frightened wife controlled by an obsessive criminal.

“She made mistakes,” her attorney told the jury. “But she never intended permanent harm.”

Then they attacked Lily.

They displayed old school reports showing she had struggled after her mother’s death.

They played edited recordings of Lily shouting at Victoria.

They claimed Lily was jealous of the marriage and had created the hidden camera footage to destroy her stepmother.

Lily sat beside me, motionless.

During a break, she whispered, “They’re making me sound crazy.”

“That’s their job.”

“What if the jury believes them?”

“Then we keep telling the truth.”

When Lily took the stand, Victoria finally looked nervous.

The prosecutor asked, “Why did you hide the camera?”

“Because no one believed me.”

“Did you tell your father?”

“I tried.”

She looked at me.

“He was always busy.”

The courtroom went silent.

I lowered my eyes.

The prosecutor continued.

“What happened on the day your father returned?”

Lily described the durian shells.

The belt.

The threats.

She did not exaggerate.

She did not cry dramatically.

She simply told the truth.

Victoria’s attorney stood for cross-examination.

“Isn’t it true you hated my client before she married your father?”

“No.”

“Didn’t you tell a friend you wanted her gone?”

“Yes.”

The lawyer smiled.

“Because you were jealous.”

“Because she had started locking my bedroom door.”

The smile disappeared.

Then the attorney produced a message allegedly sent by Lily.

I’LL MAKE DAD HATE YOU. EVEN IF I HAVE TO HURT MYSELF.

Lily stared at it.

“I never wrote that.”

Phone records showed it had come from her device.

Victoria smiled for the first time all day.

Then the courtroom doors opened.

Maria entered with a young man none of us recognized.

He carried a laptop.

“My name is Ethan Cole,” he told the judge. “I built the security system in the Hale penthouse.”

He had recovered data from Lily’s smashed phone.

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And the message had not been sent by Lily.

It had been scheduled remotely from Victoria’s tablet.