Chapter 9 - The Trial of Cassandra Vale
The winter gave way to a cold, crisp Chicago spring. The corporate world had settled; Julian Vance was facing indictment for corporate embezzlement, and Blackwood Capital had been reorganized into a smaller, private family wealth firm that allowed Richard to work entirely from his home study.
But the final chapter of the past was written in the Cook County Criminal Court building.
Cassandra Vale sat at the defense table, her elegance completely stripped away. She no longer wore the cream wool coats or the diamond earrings; she wore a simple gray suit provided by her public defender, her face gaunt as the prosecution read the final charges of felony child endangerment and criminal neglect.
Richard sat in the front row of the gallery, his hand resting on the wooden barrier. He had refused to let Ethan testify, choosing instead to let the logbooks, the school records, and the medical evaluations speak for themselves.
The state prosecutor stood before the jury, holding up the plastic bag of stale bread scraps that Richard had kept in his office safe for months.
"This defense wants you to believe that this was a dispute over parenting styles," the prosecutor said, placing the bag directly in front of the jury box. "They want you to believe that a wealthy socialite was simply trying to teach a young boy proper manners. But an eight-year-old child does not dig through a garbage can for a piece of moldy bread because he needs manners. He does it because he is starving in a five-million-dollar house while his father is told everything is perfect."
The jury deliberated for less than two hours.
The verdict was unanimous: guilty on all counts. The judge, a stern man who had seen too many children broken by the cruelty of adults, sentenced Cassandra Vale to the maximum term of seven years in the state correctional facility, without the possibility of early parole.
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As the bailiffs led her away in handcuffs, Cassandra looked back at Richard, her eyes filled with a desperate, bitter fury. "You ruined your company for him!" she shrieked through the quiet courtroom. "You could have had everything!"
Richard did not answer. He stood up, adjusted his coat, and walked out of the courtroom into the bright spring sunshine where his son was waiting for him in the back of the SUV, holding a bag of fresh doughnuts they had bought on the way down.
