Chapter 12 - The Hearing Garrick Expected to Win
The emergency hearing took place two days later.
Garrick appeared by video from the county detention center.
He wore a plain shirt instead of his burgundy jacket.
But his expression remained arrogant.
His attorney argued that the staircase incident was unresolved.
He called Sienna emotionally fragile.
He claimed Evelyn had exploited a marital conflict to seize control of Ashford Industries.
Then he presented Sienna’s medical record.
The altered version.
It described her fall as accidental and made no mention of domestic violence.
Garrick expected the document to protect him.
Rachel Dalton, the attorney Evelyn had hired for Sienna, called Dr. Nathan Vale as a witness.
Dr. Vale entered the courtroom looking exhausted.
He admitted accepting Garrick’s payment.
He admitted deleting the nurse’s safety concern.
He admitted changing Sienna’s statement from “my husband pushed me” to “I lost my balance.”
The judge’s expression hardened.
Dr. Vale also revealed something Sienna had never known.
During the emergency examination, doctors found evidence of an older injury.
A healing rib fracture.
Six weeks before the staircase fall, Garrick had shoved Sienna into the edge of a kitchen island during an argument.
Sienna told everyone she walked into an open cabinet door.
She had almost convinced herself it did not count because Garrick apologized afterward.
In court, she finally described it.
The shame she felt.
The excuses she made.
The fear that speaking would cost her home and children.
Garrick stared at the screen without remorse.
His attorney asked why Sienna stayed.
She answered honestly.
“Because he controlled the money, the house, the transportation, and the story everyone heard about me.”
Then she looked directly at Garrick.
“And because every time he hurt me, he promised it would be the last time.”
The judge denied Garrick’s petition.
Sienna received full temporary control over all medical decisions.
Garrick was prohibited from contacting her.
The judge also ordered supervised contact only after the baby’s birth and only if criminal restrictions allowed it.
Outside the courtroom, Sienna finally exhaled.
But Rachel warned her that the criminal case would be harder.
Miriam was offering prosecutors a deal.
She would testify against Garrick in exchange for reduced charges.
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And she claimed to possess evidence that Elise had helped create the forged custody documents.
👉 Miriam was prepared to sacrifice everyone to save herself—but the evidence she surrendered exposed a betrayal even Garrick had not known about.
