Chapter 16 - THE TRIAL BEGINS
The courthouse opened before sunrise.
People lined the steps.
Some carried photographs of missing daughters.
Others held signs with the victims’ names.
Daniel entered wearing a dark suit.
Without handcuffs, he almost looked like the man I married.
Lorraine wore gray.
She refused to look at me.
The prosecutor began with the porch recording.
Not the most violent part.
The routine.
The back door opening.
Daniel’s footsteps.
The rope moving around the pillar.
Lorraine sharpening metal.
My breathing.
Morning after morning.
The jury listened in silence.
Then Marissa testified.
She described the first daughter taken from her.
The false commitment.
Eleven years inside a locked facility.
Daniel’s attorney called her delusional.
Marissa looked at him.
“That word worked better when I was alone.”
Lily testified privately through recorded video.
She described growing up without knowing her identity.
Amanda testified about the bracelet.
Paul Grayson testified about paying Lorraine.
He admitted he ignored evidence because he wanted to keep Abigail.
He pleaded guilty and accepted prison.
Officer Holloway testified about the red book.
She placed her own birth entry before the jury.
Then I took the stand.
Daniel looked directly at me.
I expected fear.
Instead, I felt distance.
The prosecutor asked about the first morning.
Then the second.
Then the final one.
I described the rope.
The words.
The blows.
The old phone.
My son.
The doctor’s lie.
The hospital hallway.
“Why did you continue recording instead of leaving?” she asked.
“Because Daniel controlled the money.”
“The car.”
“My daughters.”
“My identification.”
“And because every time I imagined telling someone, I heard his voice saying nobody would believe me.”
“What changed?”
“I heard him laughing after he thought my baby was dead.”
I looked toward the jury.
“I realized silence would not save my children.”
Daniel’s attorney stood for cross-examination.
He asked why I had stayed.
Why I had returned after earlier arguments.
Why I had not screamed loudly enough for neighbors.
Why I had hidden the phone instead of calling sooner.
Every question attempted to put Daniel’s decisions inside my body.
Finally, he asked whether I hated my husband.
I looked at Daniel.
“No.”
The attorney appeared surprised.
“What do you feel?”
“Nothing that gives him power.”
May you like
Daniel’s face changed.
For the first time during the trial, he looked afraid.
