Chapter 23 - VERDICTS
The jury deliberated eight hours.
Financial counts:
Guilty on felony fraud/larceny by false pretenses relating to Meridian Atlas and clearly unauthorized household-account payments.
Not guilty on a broader count seeking to characterize certain marital-fund expenditures as theft where ownership/authorization was legally ambiguous.
Good.
Not every secret dollar was criminal.
Child endangerment:
Guilty on misdemeanor count for knowingly permitting and participating in degrading food/seating punishment after he had direct knowledge.
Not guilty on a more serious neglect count requiring proof of substantial physical danger because Leo’s medical injuries were limited and evidence did not show Dominic intended or knowingly risked serious bodily harm.
Mixed.
Correct.
Then sentencing.
Dominic had:
No prior criminal record.
Restitution escrow.
Guilty plea? No, trial, but post-verdict acceptance.
Employment history.
Parenting treatment progress.
Against:
Sustained deception.
Child vulnerability.
Abuse of financial trust.
Sentence:
Fourteen months incarceration, with ordinary statutory credits and a suspended additional term.
Two years probation.
Restitution.
No fiduciary access to my company.
No unsupervised custody of Leo unless family court later approved after evaluation.
Continued neurodiversity-informed parenting treatment.
No contact with Victoria during certain joint child-related sessions? Not necessary.
No management of Leo’s therapy finances during probation.
Then Dominic spoke.
He did not ask forgiveness.
“I treated Clara’s absence as permission.”
Then:
“I treated money she earned as money I could redirect because I was her husband.”
Then:
“I treated Liam like a debt I could hide.”
Brooke cried.
“And I treated Leo’s autism like an insult to the father I thought I should be.”
My chest tightened.
Then:
“I let my mother rank my sons.”
There.
“They are both my sons.”
Finally.
“Neither should have paid for my shame.”
He went into custody.
I cried in parking garage.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because the man being taken away had once held Leo at two in the morning and sung badly until he slept.
May you like
Both men were real.
Marriage was still over.
