Chapter 12
The first day of the trial was chaos.
The courthouse was surrounded by protesters on both sides.
#IStandWithGrant signs mixed with #JusticeForChloe signs.
Reporters shouted questions as we walked past.
Chloe wasn’t there.
She would testify later, via closed-circuit television again.
Lila was with me, her hand tight in mine.
Mara walked beside us, her face a mask of determination.
Inside the courtroom, the atmosphere was electric.
Grant sat at the defense table, looking calm and confident. He was wearing another expensive suit, his hair perfectly styled. He looked like a man who knew something we didn’t.
Richard and Margaret Holloway sat behind him, looking every bit the wealthy, respectable couple.
Victoria gave me a cold smile as we passed.
The jury filed in.
Twelve people.
Seven women. Five men.
They would decide Grant’s fate.
They would decide our fate.
Judge Albright entered, and everyone stood.
The trial had begun.
The prosecution went first.
Mara gave our opening statement.
She walked the jury through the facts.
Chloe’s injuries.
The security footage.
The audio recordings.
Grant’s behavior.
The Holloway family’s campaign of intimidation.
And then, she dropped the bombshell.
“Six months ago,” Mara said, holding up the life insurance policy, “Grant Holloway took out a five-million-dollar life insurance policy on his twelve-year-old daughter. Five million dollars. What father does that? What father looks at his child and sees a payday?”
The courtroom erupted.
Voss was on his feet, objecting.
But the damage was done.
The jurors were staring at Grant with something that looked very much like horror.
Mara continued.
“Grant Holloway didn’t just abuse his daughter. He planned to kill her. For money. And when she accidentally fell down those stairs that night, he saw his chance. He brought her to her stepmother’s hospital, hoping she would die, hoping he could blame Evelyn Mercer, and hoping he could collect five million dollars. That is the kind of man sitting before you today. That is the truth.”
She sat down.
Voss gave the defense’s opening.
He tried to dismiss the insurance policy as a standard financial planning move.
He tried to paint Grant as a loving father.
He tried to paint me as a manipulative liar.
But I could see it in the jurors’ faces.
The insurance policy had hit them hard.
The first witness was Dr. Shah.
He testified again about Chloe’s injuries.
About the belt buckle bruises.
About the severity of her head trauma.
Voss cross-examined him, but his heart wasn’t in it.
The jurors weren’t buying it.
The next witness was the nurse who’d found Chloe’s phone.
She testified about recovering the device from Chloe’s boot.
About the thirty-seven audio files.
Voss tried to suggest that I’d planted the phone.
But the nurse was firm.
She’d found it.
No one had told her to look there.
It was Chloe’s.
Then we played the audio recordings.
All thirty-seven.
The jury listened in silence.
They heard Chloe’s quiet, terrified voice documenting her abuse.
They heard Grant’s rage.
They heard the slap.
They heard him threatening to make her disappear.
When the last recording ended, the courtroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Several of the jurors were crying.
Grant wouldn’t look at them.
He stared straight ahead, his face pale.
Mara stood.
“The prosecution rests, Your Honor.”
It was the end of the first day.
And we were winning.
But I knew it was too early to celebrate.
Voss hadn’t played his hand yet.
He hadn’t called Maria.
He hadn’t brought up the adoption.
And he hadn’t revealed whatever surprise he had up his sleeve.
The second day of the trial belonged to the defense.
Voss called his first witness.
Maria Gonzalez.
Our former housekeeper.
She walked to the stand, her head down, looking nervous.
She swore to tell the truth.
And then she lied.
“Ms. Gonzalez,” Voss said. “How long did you work for the Holloway family?”
“Five years.”
“And in that time, did you ever see Dr. Mercer act violently toward Chloe?”
Maria hesitated.
Then she nodded.
“Yes. Sometimes. When she was angry. She would grab Chloe’s arm hard. Once, I saw her push Chloe into a wall. Chloe cried. Dr. Mercer told her if she told anyone, she’d be sorry.”
The courtroom murmured.
“Did you ever hear Dr. Mercer threaten Chloe?”
“Yes. She told Chloe that if she didn’t do what she said, she’d send her back to her ‘real mother’ and never let her see her again. She told Chloe that her father didn’t love her, that only Dr. Mercer loved her.”
“Did you ever see Grant Holloway hurt Chloe?”
Maria shook her head.
“Never. Mr. Holloway was always kind to Chloe. He was a good father. Dr. Mercer was the one with the temper. She was obsessed with Chloe. She treated her like a doll, not a child. And when Chloe didn’t do exactly what she wanted, she got angry.”
Lies.
All lies.
I could feel my face heating up.
I wanted to stand up and scream.
But I had to stay quiet.
I had to let Mara do her job.
Mara stood up to cross-examine.
“Ms. Gonzalez,” she said, her voice calm. “You have a son, don’t you? Carlos?”
Maria’s eyes widened.
“Yes.”
“Carlos is eighteen years old. He came to this country from Mexico three years ago. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s currently in the country without proper documentation, isn’t he?”
“Objection!” Voss shouted. “Relevance!”
“Your Honor,” Mara said. “This goes directly to the witness’s credibility. If she has been threatened or coerced into giving false testimony, the jury has a right to know.”
Judge Albright considered.
“Overruled. Answer the question, Ms. Gonzalez.”
Maria looked at Richard Holloway.
Then she looked down.
“Yes,” she whispered. “He is.”
“And you’re worried he’ll be deported, aren’t you?”
Tears filled Maria’s eyes.
“Yes.”
“Isn’t it true that Richard Holloway contacted you last week? That he told you he could make sure your son gets a green card… if you testified against Dr. Mercer?”
“No!” Maria said quickly. “That’s not true!”
“Isn’t it true that Mr. Holloway’s attorney met with you at a café on Elm Street last Tuesday? That he gave you an envelope with five thousand dollars in cash?”
Maria’s face went white.
“How… how do you know that?”
The courtroom erupted.
Voss was on his feet, shouting.
But no one was listening to him.
Mara had just destroyed Maria’s credibility.
And she’d implicated Richard Holloway in witness tampering.
“Your Honor,” Mara said, “we have photographs of that meeting. We have bank records showing a five-thousand-dollar withdrawal from Richard Holloway’s personal account that same day. And we have a recording of a phone call between Mr. Holloway and Ms. Gonzalez, in which he explicitly offers to help her son in exchange for her testimony.”
She held up a recording device.
“Would you like to hear it?”
Maria broke down sobbing.
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. He told me they’d deport Carlos. I had no choice. I had to protect my son. None of it was true. Dr. Mercer never hurt Chloe. Never. It was Mr. Holloway. Grant. He was the one who hurt her. I saw him. I saw him hit her. I saw the belt marks. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
The courtroom was in chaos.
Judge Albright banged his gavel again and again.
“Order! Order in this court!”
When things finally settled down, Maria was still crying on the stand.
Richard Holloway looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
Grant was staring at his father with a look of pure fury.
Voss looked like he wanted to disappear.
“Ms. Gonzalez,” Judge Albright said sternly. “You do realize you’ve just confessed to perjury and witness tampering?”
Maria nodded, sobbing.
“I know. I know. I’m sorry.”
“Bailiff, take Ms. Gonzalez into custody. She will be held pending charges. And Mr. Voss—you and your client’s father will both be called before the bar to answer for this. Do I make myself clear?”
Voss nodded, his face pale.
“Crystal, Your Honor.”
“Court is adjourned until tomorrow morning.”
The gavel banged.
I walked out of the courtroom in a daze.
Reporters were shouting questions.
But I didn’t hear them.
We’d won.
We’d won big.
Richard Holloway was facing criminal charges.
Voss was facing disbarment.
Grant’s defense was in tatters.
The jury had seen the truth.
There was no way they could acquit him now.
Lila squeezed my hand.
“We did it,” she whispered. “We really did it.”
But as we walked out of the courthouse, I saw something that made my blood run cold.
Grant was being led out by his attorneys.
He looked at me.
And he smiled.
Not a cold smile.
Not an angry smile.
A smile of pure, unadulterated triumph.
And I knew.
May you like
He still had one more card to play.
And it was going to be the worst one yet.
