Chapter 13 - The SentencingSix months later, the federal courthouse of New York was packed with reporters and onlookers.
I sat in the front row of the gallery, wearing a simple, elegant navy blue suit. Beside me sat Julian and Evelyn. I looked healthy, strong, and completely at peace.
At the defense table sat Adrian.
He was unrecognizable. He wore a standard orange prison jumpsuit, his hair was unkempt, and his face was hollow and pale from his time in the metropolitan detention center. He sat slumped over, his head in his hands, refusing to look at the gallery.
The judge, a stern-faced woman with a reputation for zero tolerance on financial and domestic abuse, cleared her throat.
“Mr. Vance,” the judge said, her voice echoing through the courtroom. “Over the course of this trial, this court has seen a pattern of behavior that can only be described as monstrous. You took advantage of the woman who supported you, you physically assaulted her while she was in a high-risk pregnancy, and you systematically defrauded your investors to fund a life of unearned luxury.”
Adrian flinched, his shoulders shaking slightly.
“For the charges of grand larceny, wire fraud, and conspiracy, I sentence you to fifteen years in federal prison,” the judge declared, slamming her gavel down. “And for the charges of domestic assault and reckless endangerment, I sentence you to an additional five years, to be served consecutively.”
A murmur went through the courtroom. Twenty years.
Adrian would be an old, broken man by the time he was released. He would have no career, no assets, and no relationship with the children he had threatened to take from me.
As the bailiffs stepped forward to lead him away, Adrian suddenly turned his head. His eyes met mine across the courtroom.
He looked at me with a desperate, pleading expression, as if hoping to find some shred of the submissive housewife he had once controlled.
I looked back at him.
My face was completely deadpan.
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The same blank, untouchable expression that had baffled him on the night of his party now sealed his fate. He realized, in that final, quiet second, that he had never truly known me. He had only known the mask I wore to survive him.
He was led out through the side door, the heavy metal latch clicking shut behind him, sealing him away from the world he had tried to conquer.
