Chapter 17 - The Trial Begins
Monica entered the courtroom in navy blue.
Not prison clothing.
Not glamorous.
Carefully neutral.
Her defense team wanted jurors to see a frightened mother, not a calculating socialite.
Andrew recognized the strategy immediately.
He had once fallen in love with versions of Monica created for specific rooms.
The woman at the defense table was simply another version.
The prosecution began with the ferry video.
No speech could compete with it.
Monica behind the stroller.
Looking around.
Hands on the handle.
Push.
Lucas disappearing.
Rachel running.
Jumping.
The jurors watched without moving.
Then Monica retrieving the flash drive.
Prosecutor Park paused the video.
“Why would an innocent mother whose baby had just fallen into freezing water stop to retrieve a flash drive?”
Monica’s attorney objected.
The judge sustained the objection to argumentative phrasing.
But the question remained in the room.
Officer Grant testified.
He described the weather.
Water temperature.
Security system.
Monica’s immediate accusation.
Her reaction to the camera.
Defense counsel attacked him.
“You disliked Ms. Hale?”
“I barely knew her.”
“You work for Bennett Maritime.”
“I worked ferry security.”
“Mr. Bennett indirectly controlled your employer.”
“Yes.”
“So your career depended on his family.”
Grant looked at the attorney.
“My career depended on keeping passengers from being thrown into the ocean.”
Several jurors reacted.
Rachel testified next.
Andrew dreaded it.
She described seeing the stroller moving.
Seeing Monica’s hands.
Jumping.
The cold.
Lucas’s crying.
Defense counsel tried to make her motive central.
“Your father’s business collapsed after losing a Bennett Maritime contract.”
“Yes.”
“Your father later took his own life.”
“Yes.”
“You blamed Harold Bennett.”
“For years.”
“You resented the family.”
“Yes.”
Andrew’s heart tightened.
Then counsel asked, “And yet you took a job from them.”
“I needed health insurance for my mother.”
“Did you ever fantasize about revenge?”
Rachel looked directly at him.
“When I was twenty-two and grieving? Yes.”
The courtroom shifted.
Andrew closed his eyes.
The lawyer smiled.
“Thank you.”
Rachel continued before he could sit.
“But revenge against whom?”
Counsel frowned.
“Excuse me?”
“My father was dead. Harold Bennett barely knew I existed. Andrew had nothing to do with the contract. Lucas wasn’t born.”
She leaned forward.
“I was angry. I was never interested in murdering a baby.”
The prosecutor later introduced Rachel’s HR complaint about Victor.
The deleted record.
Monica’s message saying “use her.”
The prepared scapegoat narrative collapsed.
Then Claire testified.
Monica did not look at her sister.
Claire described the fake-accident plan.
The threats.
The conversation about Lucas’s trust.
The morning argument.
Defense counsel suggested Claire wanted immunity.
Claire answered:
“I do.”
“So you benefit from blaming your sister.”
“Yes.”
“Then why should anyone believe you?”
Claire looked at Monica.
“Because I spent most of my life lying for her.”
That silence lasted several seconds.
David testified under cooperation agreement.
He admitted sabotage.
Fraud.
Trust manipulation.
He denied personally ordering Lucas killed.
Park asked:
“Did Monica know Lucas’s death would stop the descendant-trust transfer?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know Rachel was being positioned as a scapegoat?”
“Yes.”
“Did she ask you what happened if Lucas died?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“That it would benefit Victor’s control position and create leverage over Andrew.”
“Did you tell her to kill him?”
“No.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Not to.”
“Why?”
“Because murder was too risky.”
Park stared at him.
“Not because it was wrong?”
David looked down.
“No.”
It was one of the most chilling moments of the trial.
Then the case turned to Harold.
Pharmacy footage.
Medication access.
Warehouse audio.
Monica’s location data.
The photograph marked Problem solved.
Martha’s testimony.
The medical expert explained digoxin toxicity while carefully acknowledging the absence of postmortem toxicology.
The defense hammered that weakness.
“You cannot say Harold Bennett died of digoxin poisoning.”
“No.”
“You cannot say Monica Hale administered digoxin.”
“No.”
“So this is speculation.”
The expert replied, “My testimony is that the known symptoms and surrounding evidence are medically consistent with toxicity. Determining criminal responsibility is not my role.”
The murder count remained uncertain.
The attempted murder of Lucas did not.
Then Monica made the decision her lawyers had feared.
She chose to testify.
Andrew watched her take the oath.
She looked at the jury.
May you like
Then at him.
And smiled.
