Part 4: The Final Confrontation
The trial was a media circus, but I didn't care about the cameras. I only cared about one thing: Nathan never seeing the sun again.
Nathan’s defense was that he was a victim of a mental breakdown, a 'temporary lapse' brought on by the stress of our marriage. He looked at me from the defendant's box, not with remorse, but with a lingering, possessive arrogance. He thought he could win. He thought he could manipulate the jury just like he had manipulated me for years.
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I took the stand on the third day. I didn't speak about my feelings. I spoke about the ledger. I spoke about the metallic smell that night—the smell of bleach he had tried to hide. I spoke about the way he looked at Lily, not as a father, but as an object that had malfunctioned.
When he was cross-examined, the prosecutor brought in Marcus. The look on Nathan’s face when he realized his past had finally caught up with him—that his 'perfect' life was being dismantled piece by piece—was the most satisfying thing I had ever seen. The judge eventually sentenced him to multiple life terms, but the real victory came when I turned my back on him as he was being led away. I didn't look back.
