Chapter 12 - The Trial of Daria Kincaid
The trial began four months later.
Snow had melted from the city, but Catherine still woke whenever wind touched the windows.
She and Samuel lived in a modest rented house under federal protection.
They refused to return to the mansion.
Penelope had begun walking.
Her first steps were taken between Catherine and Samuel on a kitchen floor, far from marble halls and security cameras.
Noah lived with his maternal aunt and visited every weekend.
Arthur and Lucian were learning how to speak as father and son.
Lucian survived the gunshot and became one of the prosecution's strongest witnesses.
Daria entered court each morning in tailored white suits.
She never looked at Catherine.
She looked only at Samuel.
The prosecution presented financial records, medical evidence, Blackthorn footage, recordings from the chapel, and testimony from former employees.
Dr. Weston's death was traced to poison hidden in medication delivered by a guard working for Reeve.
Reeve accepted a plea deal that spared him a life sentence without parole in exchange for testifying against Daria.
He described her as a willing partner, not a victim.
Daria's attorneys attacked Catherine's memory.
They suggested trauma had distorted her perception.
They suggested she had remained at Blackthorn voluntarily.
They suggested Penelope's paternity could not be trusted.
The genetic test silenced the last claim.
The others enraged Samuel, but Catherine remained controlled.
When she took the witness stand, the courtroom became completely still.
She described the false ambulance.
She described waking behind a locked door.
She described Daria visiting with photographs of Samuel grieving.
She described giving birth without a hospital, holding Penelope through a fever, and promising her daughter that the outside world still existed.
Daria finally looked at her.
Catherine met her gaze.
"You told me Samuel had forgotten me," Catherine said.
"You told me my daughter would never know her father."
Daria's face remained composed.
"You were unstable."
"No."
Catherine's voice did not rise.
"I was inconvenient."
The prosecutor asked why Catherine returned to Kincaid House instead of going directly to the police.
"Because Daria controlled police officers, doctors, attorneys, and security contractors."
"Then why risk approaching the mansion?"
Catherine looked at Samuel.
"Because I needed one person to see me before she could erase me again."
Samuel testified the following day.
The defense portrayed him as a weak son manipulated by his wife.
He accepted the description without anger.
"I was weak," he said.
"I mistook obedience for loyalty. My weakness made Catherine easier to isolate, and I will live with that for the rest of my life."
Daria's expression changed for the first time.
She had expected him to defend his pride.
Instead, he used the truth against her.
The jury deliberated for eleven hours.
Daria was found guilty of kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder, fraud, witness tampering, and participation in Thomas Kincaid's homicide.
When the judge asked whether she wished to speak before sentencing, Daria stood.
She said everything she had done was to preserve the family.
Samuel rose from the gallery.
"You preserved the name and murdered everyone inside it."
The judge sentenced her to life without the possibility of parole.
As officers placed her in handcuffs, Daria turned to Catherine.
"You think he will choose you when the company begins to fail?"
Catherine did not answer.
Penelope, sitting in Samuel's arms, reached toward her mother.
Samuel crossed the aisle and placed the child in Catherine's hands.
The choice required no words.
May you like
Daria watched them leave together.
For the first time in her life, no one followed her command.
