Chapter 22 - THE JURY’S QUESTIONS
The jury deliberated for eight days.
They asked to review:
The timeline of Leo’s fever.
The foundation trust provisions.
Brooke’s search history.
The private-clinic chart.
Evelyn’s data-migration instructions.
They requested clarification on the difference between child endangerment and attempted murder.
The judge explained the law without suggesting a verdict.
The prosecution had not charged attempted murder.
The jury would decide whether Evelyn knowingly endangered Leo and intentionally delayed care, not whether she wanted him dead.
That distinction frustrated public commentators.
It protected the case from becoming a referendum on outrage.
The jury also asked whether my synthetic psychiatric report had been used in court before investigators exposed it.
Yes.
Evelyn submitted it with the emergency petition.
The crime was not only preparation.
She used false evidence to seek authority over me and Leo.
On the sixth day, a juror became ill.
An alternate replaced her under procedure, and deliberations restarted where required.
The delay fueled conspiracy theories online.
I stopped reading them.
Leo was twenty months old by then.
He walked unsteadily through my townhouse and called every round object “ball.”
The trial that defined his infancy meant nothing to him.
That was a gift.
Daniel and I remained separated.
We shared parenting successfully under the plan.
Couples counseling had reached the question neither of us could avoid.
“Do you want to rebuild a marriage, or preserve a functional family relationship?”
Daniel wanted the marriage.
I did not know.
Then I realized uncertainty had become my answer for too long.
“I don’t want to return to being your wife.”
Daniel cried.
He did not argue.
We agreed to divorce while continuing counseling focused on co-parenting.
Love had survived in altered form.
Trust as spouses had not.
The night before the verdict, Daniel sent one message:
Whatever happens tomorrow, I will not ask you to carry my mother’s sentence or my grief.
That boundary allowed me to sleep.
On the eighth day, the court called us back.
Evelyn stood.
Brooke sat behind prosecutors under her plea agreement.
May you like
Daniel held no one’s hand.
The clerk began reading.
