Chapter 8 - The Verdict
The first week of February brought the final, definitive chapter of the Whitmore saga.
The federal trial concluded in a Manhattan courtroom after a jury deliberated for a mere forty-five minutes. Margaret Whitmore was found guilty on all twelve counts of fraud, forgery, and embezzlement.
Sitting in the courtroom gallery, flanked by Diana Vance and Richard Bennett, I watched as the judge handed down the sentence: twelve years in a federal correctional facility with no possibility of parole for the first six.
Margaret didn't scream this time. As the federal marshals placed handcuffs around her wrists and led her away, she turned her head, her sunken eyes locking onto mine one last time. There was no fire left in her gaze—only a hollow, defeated realization that her cruelty had finally consumed her entirely.
I didn't gloat. I didn't feel joy at her imprisonment. I simply felt... light. The invisible chains she had wrapped around my soul for six long years shattered into dust.
As we stepped out of the courthouse into the crisp winter air, reporters swarmed the steps like a flock of starlings, shouting questions and flashing cameras.
"Mrs. Carter! Do you have a statement regarding the verdict?"
"Is it true you and billionaire Richard Bennett are planning to wed?"
May you like
Richard smoothly stepped in front of me, shielding me from the glaring camera lights, while his security team cleared a path toward the sleek black car waiting at the curb. He opened the door for me, and as I slid into the leather interior, he climbed in beside me, pulling me close against his side.
"Let them talk," Richard smiled, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of my head as the car pulled away from the curb. "Our future has nothing to do with headlines."
