Chapter 6
The bail hearing was a circus.
Media lined the steps of the courthouse.
Cameras flashed.
Reporters yelled questions.
Dominic was led in in cuffs.
He wore an orange jumpsuit.
His hair was messy.
He had a black eye—someone in lockup had recognized him from the news.
His lawyer was a high-priced shark Julian had warned us about.
He argued Dominic was a "devoted family man."
A "successful businessman."
A victim of a "vindictive ex-wife and her powerful family."
He pointed at me in the gallery.
"Ms. Sterling has spent her entire life getting everything she wants. When Mr. Hale asked her for a divorce, she used her family's billions to destroy him. To manufacture evidence. To paint him as a monster. This is not justice. This is a witch hunt."
I sat perfectly still.
I didn't flinch.
I didn't cry.
I just stared at Dominic.
He wouldn't meet my eyes.
Then the DA stood.
She laid out the evidence.
The two marriage licenses.
The forged death certificate.
The twelve million in siphoned funds.
The four million in gambling debts.
The fake passport.
And finally...
The life insurance policies.
"Your Honor," the DA said.
"These policies were taken out six months and three months ago, respectively. Within weeks of Mr. Hale finalizing plans to flee the country. We have reason to believe he intended to murder both Ms. Sterling and Ms. Carter to collect on these policies, then escape to Panama with the money. He is an extreme flight risk. And he is an extreme danger to the two women and two children he has spent years abusing."
The judge looked at Dominic.
He looked at the evidence.
He didn't hesitate.
"Bail is denied," he said.
"Mr. Hale will remain in custody pending trial. Trial date is set for six months from today."
The gavel banged.
Dominic's shoulders slumped.
As the guards led him out, he finally looked at me.
He mouthed two words.
I'm sorry.
I felt nothing.
No anger.
No sadness.
Just... nothing.
Outside the courthouse, Lila squeezed my hand.
"We did it," she said.
"One step closer."
That night, I went through the old house.
The one Dominic and I had shared.
I packed up all his things.
Clothes.
Pictures.
Gifts he'd given me over the years.
Everything went into boxes.
The boxes went into the dumpster.
Sophia helped.
She didn't cry.
She was quiet.
Too quiet.
When we finished, she pulled me into her room.
She closed the door.
"Mommy," she said.
"Is Daddy a bad man?"
I sat on her bed.
I pulled her onto my lap.
"Daddy made some very bad choices," I said.
"Choices that hurt a lot of people. That doesn't mean he's all bad. But it means he can't be in our lives right now. It means we have to keep ourselves safe."
She nodded slowly.
"Does he not love me anymore?"
My throat tightened.
I held her tighter.
"Oh, baby. Of course he loves you. In his own way. But love isn't just words. It's actions. It's showing up. It's telling the truth. And Daddy hasn't been very good at those things lately."
She was quiet for a long time.
Then she said, "I love Ethan. Can he be my brother for real? Not just the kind Daddy lied about?"
I smiled.
A real smile.
The first one in days.
"If that's what you both want... then yes. He can be your brother for real."
The next day, Dominic's lawyer filed a motion.
He was requesting supervised visitation with Sophia.
Once a week.
Two hours.
At a neutral center.
"Over my dead body," Victor said when he heard.
Marcus agreed.
"We'll fight it. Every step of the way. With the life insurance policies, the judge won't go for it. He's too much of a risk."
Julian nodded.
"Plus, we just got new evidence. Chloe flipped. She's testifying against Dominic in exchange for immunity. She says she has emails where he talked about 'getting rid of the Vivienne problem.' She says he was going to pay someone fifty thousand dollars to make it look like a mugging gone wrong."
I closed my eyes.
Fifty thousand dollars.
That's what my life was worth to him.
"Give the emails to the DA," I said.
"All of them. Everything Chloe has. I want this over. I want him gone. For good."
The trial came faster than I expected.
Six months felt like six days.
Every day, we sat in that courtroom.
We listened to the evidence.
We listened to the witnesses.
Chloe testified.
She cried.
She apologized.
She showed the emails.
The casino owners testified.
They told of Dominic's mounting debts.
His desperate pleas for extensions.
His threats when they said no.
Lila testified.
She told of the fake death certificate.
The lies.
The life insurance policy.
I testified last.
I told the jury about the gala.
About Chloe's words.
About Sophia's necklace.
About the life I thought we had.
The life that had never been real.
When I finished, the jury was crying.
Even the judge wiped his eyes.
The defense didn't call a single witness.
They had nothing.
No defense.
No explanation.
No way to explain away the mountain of evidence against him.
The jury deliberated for four hours.
When they came back...
Guilty.
On all counts.
Fraud.
Embezzlement.
Bigamy.
Perjury.
Solicitation to commit murder.
Twenty-five years.
No parole.
No early release.
Dominic would be seventy when he got out.
If he lived that long.
As the guards led him away, he looked at Sophia in the gallery.
He mouthed, "I love you."
Sophia didn't wave.
She didn't smile.
May you like
She just held Ethan's hand.
And squeezed tight.
