Chapter 13 - Miriam Takes the Stand
Garrett expected Alessia to be the witness who destroyed him.
He was wrong.
It was Miriam.
She walked into court wearing a simple blue-gray dress.
No fear in her face.
Garrett watched her sit down.
For the first time since the ballroom, he looked ashamed.
Miriam described the study.
The envelope.
Garrett blocking the hallway.
His demand.
“Give it to me.”
Her refusal.
Then the ballroom.
“What happened next?” the prosecutor asked.
Miriam looked toward Garrett.
“He told me I had spent years living off the Moretti name.”
Garrett lowered his eyes.
Miriam continued.
“I told him the house belonged to my daughter.”
“And then?”
“He kicked me.”
The ballroom video confirmed everything.
But Miriam was not finished.
“After he kicked me, I looked at Evelyn.”
The prosecutor asked, “Why?”
“Because she had told me earlier that evening to stay out of Carlo’s study.”
The courtroom shifted.
Alessia turned sharply.
Miriam had never told her.
“When was this?” the prosecutor asked.
“About an hour before the assault.”
“What exactly did Mrs. Hale say?”
Miriam’s voice was clear.
“She said, ‘Some dead men cause more trouble than living ones. Leave Carlo’s things buried with him.’”
Evelyn stared at her.
Miriam looked back.
“I thought she was being cruel.”
She paused.
“Now I know she was afraid.”
The prosecution then introduced the messages.
Nathan’s testimony.
Belladonna.
The guardianship draft.
The forged consent.
Victor Shaw’s letter.
Garrett’s defense began collapsing.
His attorney attempted to separate him from Evelyn.
A son manipulated by his mother.
A husband who initially fell in love and later made terrible financial choices.
Then the prosecutor played an audio file Nathan had saved.
Garrett’s voice.
Recorded before his first date with Alessia.
“What if she doesn’t like me?”
Nathan laughed.
“She will.”
Garrett answered:
“She doesn’t have to love me forever. She just has to trust me long enough.”
Nobody moved.
Alessia felt the sentence hit.
Not because it told her something new.
Because hearing it removed the last small piece of uncertainty she had protected without realizing it.
Garrett looked toward her.
Alessia did not cry.
Did not glare.
Did not look away.
She simply removed the emotional power he had once possessed over her.
He was no longer the man who broke her heart.
He was evidence.
By the end of the week, Garrett’s attorneys requested plea negotiations.
Evelyn refused.
“She thinks she can still win,” Samuel said.
Alessia shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
She understood Evelyn now.
“She thinks losing is something that only happens to other people.”
