Chapter 8
The trial lasted six weeks.
Every day felt like walking through fire in dress shoes.
The prosecution began with me on the floor beside the fireplace.
Then the trophy recording.
Then the financial plan.
Then Elaine’s kidnapping.
Then Vanessa’s apartment.
Then Lily.
The courtroom changed when my daughter’s photo appeared on the screen.
She had pigtails.
A missing front tooth.
A smile too big for her face.
The jury softened.
Then hardened.
Vanessa stared at the photo like it belonged to her.
That made me want to tear the table apart.
Daniel testified under his deal.
He admitted the assault plan.
The incapacity petition.
The offshore transfers.
The cover-up after Lily’s medication was delayed.
He kept saying he was manipulated.
The prosecutor finally asked, “Mr. Carter, did Ms. Monroe force you to delete hospital footage?”
“No.”
“Did she force you to file fraudulent court papers?”
“No.”
“Did she force you to kiss her while your wife bled on the floor?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“No.”
I stared at him.
That was the closest he would ever come to truth.
Vanessa testified against advice.
Of course she did.
She needed the final performance.
She cried about loving Lily.
She claimed I neglected my daughter.
She said Daniel was lonely.
She said the company had made me cold.
Then the prosecutor opened Vanessa’s journal.
“You wrote, ‘If Brianna disappeared, Daniel, Lily, and I could be complete.’ Did you write that?”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“I was emotional.”
“You kept Lily’s bracelet.”
“I loved her.”
“You painted her name over a crib two years after her death.”
“I was grieving.”
The prosecutor stepped closer.
“You delayed a sick child’s medication to frighten her mother.”
Vanessa’s mask cracked.
“She wasn’t supposed to die!”
The courtroom went silent.
I stopped breathing.
Vanessa realized what she had said.
Her lawyer closed his eyes.
The prosecutor spoke softly.
“But she did.”
Vanessa looked at me.
For the first time, I saw something like fear.
Not remorse.
Fear of consequence.
Good.
When I testified, my voice shook only once.
When they asked me to say Lily’s name.
“Lily Rose Carter,” I said.
And then I told the jury who she was.
Not just how she died.
How she laughed.
How she called pancakes “flat cake.”
How she believed stars were holes poked in heaven.
How she loved Vanessa.
That last part nearly broke me.
“She trusted her,” I said. “So did I.”
The verdict came after two days.
Daniel was found guilty on every financial and assault-related count, plus obstruction in Lily’s case.
Charles Wynn was found guilty of conspiracy and fraud.
Vanessa was found guilty of attempted murder, kidnapping, fraud, obstruction, and manslaughter in Lily’s death.
The judge ordered her taken into custody immediately.
Vanessa screamed my name as they cuffed her.
“You would have lost everything without me!”
May you like
I stood.
“No,” I said. “I lost everything because of you.”
