Chapter 13: The Trial
The courthouse steps were crowded with reporters.
Sarah entered holding Daniel’s hand.
Baby Miriam remained in the hospital but was gaining strength every day.
Evelyn walked beside them.
For the first time, the sisters faced Richard together.
Inside the courtroom, Richard appeared in an expensive suit.
He looked less like a prisoner than a businessman attending a board meeting.
When Sarah took the witness stand, his attorney approached gently.
“Mrs. Whitmore, you have recently inherited controlling shares in Whitmore Industries. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“And your father’s conviction would prevent him from challenging that inheritance.”
“My mother’s will prevents him.”
“You benefit financially from these accusations.”
“I would trade every dollar to have my mother alive.”
The attorney shifted.
“You recorded your family without their knowledge.”
“I recorded them because they had lied to me for years.”
“You provoked your brother by discussing the company.”
“No.”
“You were angry.”
“I was carrying baby clothes.”
“Isn’t it possible you lost your balance?”
The prosecutor played the stairway recording.
Jason’s voice echoed through the courtroom.
Move, you pathetic burden.
Then came the sound of the kick.
Sarah’s fall.
Richard’s laughter.
She’s fine. Stop the drama.
Several jurors looked away.
Richard did not.
Jason testified next.
He admitted cutting Miriam’s seat belt.
He admitted damaging the brake line.
He admitted helping Richard stage the crash.
Then the prosecutor asked about Sarah.
“Why did you kick your sister?”
Jason looked toward her.
“Because my father told me she was taking everything from me.”
“Did he tell you to assault her?”
“No.”
“So that choice was yours?”
Jason’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
Sarah appreciated that he did not hide behind Richard.
It did not erase what he had done.
But it was the first honest thing she had heard from him in years.
Martin Hale testified about the offshore accounts and bribed officials.
Rosa testified about Miriam’s blood on Jason’s shirt and Richard’s threats against Mateo.
Then Evelyn took the stand.
Richard’s attorney tried to humiliate her.
“You claim to be Miriam’s daughter, yet she did not raise you.”
“She was told I was dead.”
“You have no emotional memory of her as a mother.”
“I remember the six months she spent trying to make up for the years your client stole.”
The attorney showed the jury Evelyn’s offshore account.
“Your name appears on an account containing three million dollars.”
Evelyn looked genuinely shocked.
“I never opened that account.”
The courtroom erupted.
Richard’s defense claimed Evelyn had participated in the embezzlement and murdered Miriam to secure the will.
The judge called for order.
Daniel leaned toward Sarah.
“They planted the account in her name.”
The prosecution requested time to investigate.
That evening, Bennett traced the account’s creation.
The documents used Evelyn’s identity.
But the authorization signature belonged to someone unexpected.
Miriam Whitmore.
Sarah stared at the report.
“My mother opened it?”
Daniel read the dates.
“No. The account was created two years after she died.”
Someone had forged Miriam’s signature.
A handwriting expert identified the forger.
It was not Richard.
It was Jason.
When confronted, Jason denied knowing anything about the account.
Then investigators discovered a prison phone call placed from Richard to an unknown number.
Richard had ordered someone to frame Evelyn during the trial.
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That person was still working inside Whitmore Industries.
And Sarah had just appointed him acting CEO.
