Chapter 9 - The Courtroom Bloodbath
The trial lasted exactly four days. It was a media circus.
The defense tried to paint Maya as a hysterical, unstable woman, but then the prosecution played the audio tape from my living room. The jury heard Liam admit to his mother's demands. They heard Beatrice's cold, calculating voice demanding the property.
Then came the medical photos. The gasps in the courtroom were audible when the images of Maya's bruised, torn back and split face were projected onto the screen.
Liam took the stand and sobbed, trying to throw his mother under the bus. "She made me do it! I was terrified of her!" he cried, looking at the jury.
The judge wasn't having it.
When the verdict was read, neither Beatrice nor Liam showed a shred of dignity.
Guilty on all counts.
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Beatrice was sentenced to fifteen years in a state penitentiary without the possibility of early parole. Liam, as a complicit accessory and co-conspirator, received a five-year sentence and a lifetime ban from practicing medicine.
As the bailiffs led Beatrice away in handcuffs, she looked back at Maya. Maya didn't flinch. She sat tall, her posture perfect, her face completely unbothered.
