Chapter 9 - THE FINAL VERDICT
The jury was out for only four hours.
When they returned,
the tension in the courtroom was so thick you could feel it in your teeth.
The foreperson stood up,
a thick stack of papers in their hand.
“On the charges of racketeering,
Arthur Vance:
Guilty.”
“On the charges of money laundering,
Arthur Vance:
Guilty.”
“On the charges of medical battery,
Arthur Vance:
Guilty.”
Arthur didn't move,
his face a frozen mask of stone as the list went on.
“On the charges of domestic assault,
Julian Vance:
Guilty.”
“On the charges of conspiracy,
Julian Vance:
Guilty.”
Julian broke then,
sobbing into his hands as the reality of his sentence hit him.
He was looking at twenty years in a federal penitentiary.
His father was looking at life.
Beatrice was found guilty of conspiracy and was sentenced to ten years.
The Vance empire was officially dead.
The judge looked at Arthur before passing sentence,
his voice filled with a deep,
moral indignation.
“You thought you were above the law because you were above the poverty line,”
the judge said.
“But the law is a leveler.”
“And today,
you have been leveled.”
I sat in the back of the room,
holding Leo’s hand as he slept in his stroller.
He didn't know that his father and grandparents had just been erased from his future.
He didn't know that the name Vance would now follow him like a shadow,
but one he could walk out of.
As the guards led the Vances away,
I stood up and walked out of the courtroom.
I was met by a wall of cameras,
but I had nothing to say to them.
The verdict said it all.
I drove home in my modest car,
the sun setting over the city,
and I felt a sense of peace that I hadn't known in years.
The war was over.
The Vances were gone.
And I was free.
That night,
I sat in Leo’s room,
watching him sleep.
I thought about the baby shower,
the cupcakes,
and the fist.
I thought about the applause of Arthur and Beatrice.
It was all so small now,
a distant nightmare that had lost its power to scare me.
I had been the ghost in their machine,
and I had broken it from the inside out.
I was Clara,
May you like
the mother of Leo.
And the future was ours.
