Chapter 15
Richard’s criminal trial began in the fall.
By then, Lily could sleep with the chair beside the door instead of under the handle.
Progress was small.
Progress was sacred.
The prosecutor opened with the Easter recording.
Not pictures.
Not speeches.
Richard’s own voice.
My family owns this town.
The courtroom listened.
Richard stared ahead.
Eleanor stared at Lily.
Lily sat beside me for the first day only.
She wanted to hear the beginning.
When the recording reached her whispering, “Dad, don’t let him make me stay,” she squeezed my hand so hard it hurt.
I squeezed back.
Then she left with Dr. Ross.
I stayed.
I listened to witnesses.
Doctors.
Agents.
Women Richard had silenced.
A tenant whose home he stole.
A secretary he threatened.
Sarah, the former girlfriend, testified that Eleanor offered her money to sign a false statement after Richard broke her wrist years ago.
Eleanor was charged separately after that.
She did not look royal anymore.
She looked old and furious.
When I testified, Richard finally looked at me.
His lawyer asked, “Mr. Hayes, you used military contacts to destroy a man you disliked, correct?”
“No.”
“You called it Code Black.”
“Yes.”
“Sounds dramatic.”
“It means immediate extraction, evidence protection, and federal notification.”
“From your former life?”
“Yes.”
“Were you seeking revenge?”
I looked at Richard.
Then at the jury.
“I was seeking a way to remove my bleeding daughter from a house where the police chief was eating lunch with the man who hurt her.”
The lawyer’s face tightened.
“No further questions.”
Mara testified last.
She traced the corruption.
The payments.
The clinic.
The chief.
The falsified psychiatric plan.
May you like
By the end, Richard’s charm looked thin.
Even to himself.
