Chapter 15 - The Criminal Trial
Six months later, Victoria Vance’s criminal trial opened at the United States District Court in downtown Houston.
The courtroom was packed with news reporters, real estate tycoons, and high-society figures eager to witness the downfall of the Vance dynasty.
Victoria sat at the defense table in her prison jumpsuit, her spirit completely broken, her arrogant posture reduced to a stooped hunch.
I took the witness stand in a tailored navy suit, delivering my testimony with calm, precise, and unshakeable confidence.
Marcus displayed the high-definition toxicology reports and played the recorded audio files across the courtroom's surround-sound speakers.
The jury gasped in disgust as Victoria's own voice echoed through the hall, bragging about drugging her son and framing her daughter-in-law.
When the prosecutor showed the forensic photos of the drugged groom and the forged prenuptial addendum, several jurors shook their heads in anger.
Victoria's defense team tried to claim she was suffering from temporary mental incompetence brought on by severe anxiety.
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But the prosecutor obliterated their defense by presenting five years of financial records proving she had been systematically embezzling from Julian's trust.
She hadn't drugged him to save him from a bad marriage; she had drugged him to cover up her twenty-million-dollar theft before he discovered it.
