Chapter 10 - The Trial
Daniel accepted a plea agreement nine months later.
He pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy, identity theft, and unlawful medication tampering.
Sloane pleaded guilty to conspiracy and charitable-fund embezzlement.
Margaret pleaded guilty to receiving stolen funds and participating in the forged competency petition.
The judge allowed Sloane to remain under supervised release until after the baby was born.
She later received a reduced sentence because she testified against Daniel.
Daniel called her betrayal unforgivable.
The irony was almost too perfect.
During sentencing, Daniel asked permission to address me.
The judge agreed.
He turned toward the gallery.
Prison had changed him.
His expensive haircut was gone.
His tailored suit had been replaced by a loose gray uniform.
“I know you hate me,” he said.
“I don’t.”
He looked surprised.
“Hate requires energy.”
His mouth tightened.
“I did love you.”
“Perhaps you did.”
“I lost myself.”
“No.”
I looked directly at him.
“You revealed yourself.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I hope someday you forgive me.”
The courtroom became very quiet.
I thought about forgiveness.
People spoke about it as though it were a moral debt owed by the injured person.
They said forgiveness brought peace.
They rarely discussed what happened when forgiveness became another way to avoid consequences.
“I forgive the man I thought you were,” I said.
Daniel looked up.
“But that man never existed.”
The judge sentenced him to eleven years.
Sloane received three years after the birth of her daughter.
Margaret received eighteen months of home confinement and lost the Vermont property purchased with stolen funds.
The court ordered the recovered money returned to the children’s hospitals.
Sloane gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
I never published the child’s name.
I never released her photograph.
The baby had not betrayed me.
She deserved a life separate from the scandal created before her birth.
That decision surprised people.
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They expected revenge to consume everything.
They did not understand that revenge without boundaries becomes another form of surrender.
