Chapter 13
That night, we celebrated at home.
Chloe made pasta.
Lila brought home cake from the café.
We laughed.
We talked.
We allowed ourselves to hope.
“Tomorrow, they’ll find him guilty,” Chloe said, her eyes bright. “And then it’ll all be over.”
“I think so too, baby,” I said.
But I couldn’t shake the memory of Grant’s smile.
That triumphant smile.
What did he know?
What was he planning?
I tried to push the thought away.
To enjoy the moment.
To be with my family.
But the feeling of dread wouldn’t leave me.
At eleven o’clock, I got a call from Mara.
She didn’t sound happy.
“Turn on the news,” she said.
I turned on the television.
A breaking news banner flashed across the screen.
SHOCKING TWIST: NEW WITNESS CLAIMS CHLOE HOLLOWAY’S INJURIES WERE SELF-INFLICTED
The reporter was talking excitedly.
“—an exclusive interview with a former classmate of Chloe Holloway, who claims that the twelve-year-old had a history of self-harm and had talked about ‘faking’ an injury to get attention. The witness, who asked to remain anonymous, says Chloe was ‘desperate’ to stay with her stepmother and would do anything to make her father look bad.”
I stared at the screen.
Self-harm.
Faking an injury.
It was absurd.
It was insulting.
But it was also dangerous.
Because it planted another seed of doubt.
Another way for the jury to question everything.
“Who is this witness?” I asked Mara.
“We don’t know. The station is protecting their identity. But I’d bet my career she’s a paid plant. Richard Holloway has enough money to buy anyone. Even a twelve-year-old girl with a grudge.”
“Can we stop it?”
“I’ve already called the judge. I’m asking for a gag order. But the damage is already done. The jurors have been instructed not to watch the news, but let’s be real—they’re human. Some of them will have seen this. And it will stick.”
I felt sick.
“He won’t stop, will he?” I whispered. “He’ll keep throwing anything at the wall, hoping something sticks.”
“Not for long. Richard is facing criminal charges. Voss is about to be disbarred. Their operation is falling apart. Tomorrow, we finish this. We put Grant on the stand. We destroy him. And then it’s over.”
I hoped she was right.
But as I hung up the phone, I saw Grant’s smile again.
And I knew.
This wasn’t over.
The next morning, the courtroom was even more packed than usual.
Everyone wanted to see how the defense would recover from the witness tampering disaster.
Voss looked like he hadn’t slept.
His suit was wrinkled.
His eyes were bloodshot.
Richard Holloway was not in the courtroom.
He’d been arraigned on witness tampering charges that morning and was out on bail.
Mara called Grant to the stand.
The moment everyone had been waiting for.
Grant walked to the witness box with his head held high.
He swore to tell the truth.
And then he lied.
“Mr. Holloway,” Mara said. “On the night your daughter was admitted to the hospital, you told the emergency room staff that she had fallen down the stairs. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“You also told Dr. Mercer, and I quote, ‘She isn’t even your biological child, so this isn’t your concern.’ Did you say that?”
“I may have said something similar. I was upset. My daughter had just been seriously injured. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“You also threatened Dr. Mercer, saying that if Chloe died, it would be her fault. Did you say that?”
“I was angry. I blamed her at the time. I thought she’d overreacted. I said things I didn’t mean.”
“Things you didn’t mean,” Mara repeated. “Like the thirty-seven audio recordings where you can be heard abusing your daughter? Those were things you didn’t mean either?”
“Those recordings are fake,” Grant said smoothly. “Dr. Mercer manufactured them. She’s very good with technology. She’s a doctor, after all. She knows how to manipulate things.”
“Of course,” Mara said dryly. “And the belt buckle bruises on Chloe’s arms? Those were fake too?”
“Chloe has… issues. She’s been through a lot. The divorce. The pressure of being in the middle of everything. She sometimes hurts herself. To get attention. To make people feel sorry for her. Those bruises… she did them to herself. To frame me.”
The courtroom murmured.
The anonymous witness from the news.
Self-harm.
Grant was playing the card.
“Chloe hurt herself,” Mara said, her voice cold. “With your belt. In the exact shape of your belt buckle.”
“She took my belt from my closet. She knew what it looked like. She knew exactly what would make people believe her.”
Mara stared at him for a long moment.
Then she changed tactics.
“Mr. Holloway, six months ago, you took out a five-million-dollar life insurance policy on your daughter. Why?”
Grant didn’t flinch.
“It was a financial planning move. A way to secure her future if something happened to me. The policy pays out to her, not to me.”
“Actually,” Mara said, “the policy pays out to you as the legal guardian. If Chloe died, you would get five million dollars. Isn’t that correct?”
Grant’s face flickered.
Just for a second.
“Technically, yes. But I would have set up a trust in her name. I would never—”
“Never what?” Mara interrupted. “Never kill your own daughter for money? Never plan to make it look like an accident or like Dr. Mercer did it? Never bring her to her stepmother’s hospital, hoping she would die so you could collect the insurance money and frame the woman you hated?”
“Objection!” Voss shouted, though he sounded half-hearted.
“Sustained.”
Mara leaned forward.
“Mr. Holloway, your entire defense rests on the idea that Dr. Mercer is a master manipulator who orchestrated an elaborate conspiracy to frame you. But isn’t it true that you’re the manipulator? Isn’t it true that you blackmailed Lila Marlow into signing away her rights? Isn’t it true that you paid off Maria Gonzalez to lie under oath? Isn’t it true that you tried to frame Dr. Mercer for your own crimes? And isn’t it true that you beat your twelve-year-old daughter with a belt, pushed her down the stairs, and then tried to cover it up?”
Grant stared at her.
And then he smiled.
That same cold, triumphant smile.
“No,” he said clearly. “That’s not true. None of it is true. Because you see, Dr. Mercer isn’t the only one with evidence.”
He looked at the judge.
“Your Honor, I would like to call a new witness. One who hasn’t been mentioned before. One who can prove, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Dr. Mercer is the one who hurt Chloe. And that she’s been lying about me from the very beginning.”
Mara’s head snapped up.
“Your Honor! This is highly irregular! The defense has had months to disclose their witnesses! They can’t just spring a new witness on us in the middle of trial!”
“Your Honor,” Voss said, standing up, “this witness only came forward last night. She was afraid to speak up. She feared for her safety. But what she has to say is critical to the truth. We ask the court’s indulgence.”
Judge Albright looked at Grant.
He looked at Voss.
He looked at Mara.
“Who is this witness?” he asked.
Grant stood.
He looked directly at me.
And he said the name I’d been dreading.
May you like
“Dr. Mercer’s own mother.
“Eleanor Mercer.”
