Chapter 8 - The Verdict
"Guilty on all counts."
The judge's voice boomed through the courtroom, echoing the way my father's voice had across the university lawn almost a year ago.
Arthur Sterling didn't shout this time. He just slumped in his chair, suddenly looking twenty years older.
My mother wept, but these were real tears. Tears for her lost mansions, her seized bank accounts, her ruined social standing.
Julian sat in the back row, wearing a cheap suit, his head in his hands. He had avoided jail time by turning state's evidence, but he was a pariah. A trust fund kid with no trust fund, no degree, and a last name that was now synonymous with corporate theft.
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As the bailiffs moved in to handcuff my parents, Arthur looked back at me one last time. There was no apology in his eyes, only a bitter, defeated understanding. He had finally met an opponent he couldn't bully, buy, or silence. And he had created her himself.
I didn't stay to watch them get led away. I turned and walked out the heavy oak doors of the courtroom, breathing in the fresh air of a life that finally belonged to me.
