Chapter 13
The fraud trial was uglier.
Paper cuts hurt differently.
Bank records.
Insurance policies.
Forged signatures.
Fake death documents.
Natalie’s disappearance.
Elise’s ruined job.
Carmen’s stolen credit.
My spousal policy.
Suzanne cried on the stand.
She had taken a plea.
Her testimony sounded like someone trying to save herself by throwing truth at a fire.
“Derek said wives share everything,” she said.
The prosecutor asked, “Did Skylar agree?”
Suzanne looked down.
“No.”
“Did Natalie agree to be declared dead?”
“No.”
“Did Patricia know?”
Suzanne began sobbing.
“Yes.”
Patricia testified too.
She denied everything until the prosecutor showed her emails.
Then she changed strategy.
“My son was desperate,” she said. “Women these days abandon men and expect sympathy.”
The prosecutor’s face did not move.
“Your son threw boiling coffee at his wife.”
“Skylar provoked him.”
A juror’s expression hardened.
Good.
Let Patricia speak.
She was doing more damage than any lawyer could.
Natalie testified last.
She told the court how Derek slowly took her accounts.
How Patricia called her unstable.
How Suzanne used her cards.
How Derek staged her disappearance after a boating trip and forced her to run with threats against her sister.
“Why not go to police?” his lawyer asked.
Natalie looked at him.
“Because the first officer I told said Derek seemed like a good man.”
The room went quiet.
Then I testified about finding the insurance quote.
The letter.
The flash drive.
The shoebox.
Derek watched me with hatred.
For once, it did not reach me.
The verdict took one day.
Guilty.
Derek.
Patricia.
Suzanne.
Not on every count.
Enough.
Insurance fraud.
Forgery.
Conspiracy.
Identity theft.
Financial abuse.
Natalie cried so hard she could not stand.
I helped her up.
Two survivors holding each other in a courtroom.
May you like
Derek had tried to make us disappear.
Instead, we became witnesses.
