Chapter 15 - The Case Begins to Fall Apart
A judge suppressed one piece of evidence obtained through Tobias’s old unlawful warehouse entry.
Not the recent warrants.
Not Penelope’s messages.
Not the SUV evidence.
But the ruling became a headline.
KEY EVIDENCE THROWN OUT IN GARRETT VALE CASE.
Garrett’s attorneys requested bail reduction.
They argued Penelope was the true mastermind.
Garrett had merely followed her emotional demands.
Penelope’s attorneys argued the opposite.
The lovers who once stood together beneath a black umbrella now blamed each other through court filings.
Rosalind should have enjoyed it.
She did not.
Meanwhile Tobias vanished.
Not literally.
He stopped answering Rosalind.
Grace knew where he was but respected his request for distance.
Rosalind became furious.
“He lies for fifteen years and now he needs boundaries?”
Grace said:
“Yes.”
Rosalind stared.
Grace continued.
“You don’t have to like them.”
Rosalind laughed bitterly.
“Everyone has discovered healthy boundaries after nearly killing each other.”
The company worsened.
A Navy maintenance contract worth $86 million was paused pending internal-compliance review tied to historical Harbor payments.
Banks tightened covenants.
Vale Maritime began approaching Mercer customers.
Even with Garrett jailed, his company attacked.
Victoria Vale issued a statement:
“Mercer Shipworks has spent years concealing corruption while blaming our family for its internal dysfunction.”
Rosalind wanted to fight publicly.
Grace stopped her.
“Documents, not rage.”
Rosalind hated how often that was correct.
Then the toxicology defense attacked.
Garrett’s lawyers produced pharmacy records showing medication under Rosalind’s name.
Fake prescriptions.
But facially valid.
They suggested Rosalind secretly used sedatives and now blamed Garrett.
Dr. Keller’s credibility was weak because he admitted fraud.
Penelope’s credibility was worse because she sought leniency.
Tobias lied for fifteen years.
Every major witness carried damage.
Detective Morales told Rosalind:
“Cases don’t require perfect witnesses.”
“But juries like them.”
“Juries also understand conspiracies involve compromised people.”
Rosalind looked toward the river.
“What if he walks?”
Morales did not lie.
“It’s possible.”
That answer terrified her more than reassurance would have.
Then Garrett was granted a closely supervised pretrial release on a high secured bond after months of detention and litigation.
Electronic monitoring.
Passport surrendered.
No contact with Rosalind.
No contact with Penelope except through counsel.
Rosalind saw him leave the courthouse.
He looked thinner.
Still handsome.
Still composed.
For one terrible second, her body remembered loving him.
She hated that too.
That evening a package arrived at Grace’s office.
No return address.
Inside was a glass milk bottle.
Empty.
And a note:
Ask Rosalind how many documents she signed after midnight.
Rosalind went cold.
“Garrett?”
“Could be anyone,” Grace said.
But the question mattered.
Rosalind began reviewing old signatures.
Board consents.
Trust amendments.
Vendor approvals.
Insurance authorizations.
Many were timestamped late at night.
11:43 p.m.
12:12 a.m.
1:08 a.m.
Times Garrett brought warm milk.
She stared.
“He wasn’t only making me look unstable.”
Grace nodded.
“He was using the impairment to obtain signatures.”
Some documents might be voidable if fraud or incapacity could be shown.
But proving she was impaired at exact signing times years later would be difficult.
Then they found one document that mattered enormously.
A voting agreement signed two years earlier.
It gave Garrett proxy authority over Rosalind’s shares during any “temporary health-related incapacity.”
Rosalind remembered signing something that night.
Garrett told her it was a routine estate update.
She had drunk warm milk forty minutes earlier.
The proxy had never been invoked.
Until now.
Garrett’s lawyers submitted it to Mercer Shipworks.
They claimed Rosalind’s ongoing “psychological trauma” from the river event triggered the incapacity provision.
Rosalind almost screamed.
“He’s trying to control my shares while I’m alive.”
Grace said:
“The argument is aggressive and likely weak.”
“Likely?”
“We still have to defeat it.”
Garrett had failed to drown her.
May you like
Now he was using a document obtained while drugging her to argue that surviving his murder attempt made her too traumatized to control her own company.
The final insult became the most dangerous legal move yet.
