Chapter 176
Elara’s POV
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Elara had never been inside a courtroom before and she hated everything about it. The wood paneling that was supposed to look dignified but just felt oppressive. The fluorescent lights that made everyone look sickly. The way time moved differently here, each minute stretching into an eternity while simultaneously racing toward a verdict that would determine everything.
She sat in the front row behind the prosecution table with Dante on her left and her mother on her right. Marcus was at the witness stand, his hand raised, swearing to tell the truth.
He looked good. Confident and composed in his dark suit, his jaw set with determination. But Elara could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers gripped the edge of the witness box just a little too tightly.
The prosecutor approached, her heels clicking on the polished floor.
“Mr. Thorne, can you tell the court about your relationship with Catherine Thorne?”
“She was my mother.” Marcus’s voice was steady but Elara heard the emotion underneath. “She raised me, supported me, believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.”
“Can you describe what kind of person she was?”
Marcus took a breath. “She was kind, generous, she had this terrible singing voice but she’d sing anyway, usually off-key show tunes while she cooked dinner. She taught me to read using comic books because traditional books bored me. She never missed a single one of my soccer games, even the ones where I spent the whole time on the bench.”
Elara watched the jury. A few of them were leaning forward, engaged. Others had their arms crossed, expressions neutral. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking.
“When did you learn about your mother’s death?”
“I was seventeen. Senior year of high school. I got a phone call around midnight from my father. He could barely speak, just kept saying there’d been an accident and I needed to come to the hospital immediately.”
“What happened when you arrived?”
“A doctor told me my mother had been struck by a car while crossing Park Avenue. She died at the scene. They said it was a hit and run, that the driver hadn’t stopped.”
The prosecutor walked over to the evidence table and picked up a photograph. “Is this your mother?”
Marcus looked at the photo and Elara saw his composure crack slightly. “Yes. That’s her.”
“For the record, this is Catherine Thorne six months before her death. Mr. Thorne, how did your mother’s death affect your family?”
“It destroyed us.” Marcus’s voice was rougher now. “My father fell apart. He stopped going to work, stopped eating, barely functioned for months. I had to postpone college to help manage the estate and take care of
17:00 Mon May 11
Her Du faruly was never the same
And the detendam Penelope Thorne When did the enter your life!
Abou en months after my mother died. They started dating and were marned less than a year later
How did you feel about their relationship?”
Marcus looked directly at Penelope for the first time She sat at the defense table perfectly still her espression
unreadabir
“I thought it was too fast. That my father was making decisions out of gnef rather than genuine feeling But i was eighteen years old and didn’t know how to articulate that, so I kept quiet”
The prosecutor asked more questions, walking Marcus through the timeline. When he’d learned about the traffic camera footage When he’d discovered Penelope’s car had been the one that killed his mother. The moment everything had clicked into place
Then came the victim impact statement
Marcus pulled out the folded paper from his jacket pocket His hands were shaking slightly as he unfolded a
“My mother was forty-two years old when she died,” he read “She had plans She wanted to travel to italy learn to paint, watch me graduate from college and get married and have children of her own. She wanted to grow old with my father, to be a grandmother, to see what her life would become beyond those forty two
years
Elara felt tears burning her eyes but she blinked them back Marcus needed her strong right now
Penelope Thorne took all of that away She didn’t just kill my mother that night on Park Avenue the killed every future moment my mother would have had very birthday, every holiday every milestone My mother never got to meet my wife She’ll never hold her grandchildren She’ll never know that I named my daughter after her
His voler cracked on the last sentence and Elara saw him pause to collect himself
I don’t know if my mother would have liked the man I’ve become Thope she will But I never get to Binl out because Penelope Thorne decided that one woman’s life was less important than avoiding come qurtis es for her own attacinis
Marcus folded the paper and looked directly at the jury My mother was a real person she had dreams and flaws and people who loved her. She wasn’t just a statistic of a cold case ble And she deserves pistice
The courtroom was silent when he finished Even Penelope’s attorney looked affected though he recovered quickly.
The cross-examination was brutal Penelope’s lawyeraried to paint Marcus as biased as someone seeking revenge rather than justice. He asked about the contract marriage, about Marcusy own legal troubles about anything that might make the jury question his credibilay
But Marcus held firm. He answered every question calmly, never rising to the bait never losing his
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གས་དཀ
Why Brialh stepped down from the witness stand two hours later Elara could see the exhaust s lowed his bracts. He sat beside her and she took his hand squeezing gently
“You did great she whispered
The trial continued for three more days. Expert witnesses testified about the traffic commera footage about the body shop records about the timeline that proved Penelope had been driving the car that killed Cathingie Thame
Penelope’s defense tried everything They claimed the footage was inconclusive That the body shop records could have been for different damage That Penelope had been confused and traumatized and vers, she d
made mustakes, but mistakes weren’t murder
The attorney painted his client as a woman who’d made one terrible error in judgment fifteen years ago and had spent every day since trying to atone He talked about how she’d cared for Richard Thome in his griet how she’d tried to be part of the family, how she’d lived with guilt for over a decade
It was convincing Too convincing Elara watched the jury and felt her stomach sink
They believed him Or at least some of them did
When closing arguments finished and the jury retired to deliberate. Marcus looked pale
“What if they arquit her?” he said quietly “What if after everything, she walks away?”
“They won’t Dante said, but even he didn’t sound certain
The jury deliberated for two full days Forty-eight hours of waiting and pacing and trying not to imagine the
wors!
Elara barely slept She kept playing the trial over in her head analyzing every moment, trying to guess which way the jury would lean The evidence was sold but Penelope’s attorney had been good. Really get Aut juries were unpredictable
When the call finally came that the jury had reached a verdict Flara felt like she might throw up
They hird back into the courtroom and took their seats Marsus sat rigid beside her has hand gripping here su tightly it hurt
The judge entered ‘Has the jury reached a verdict?”
The foreman stood “We have, Your Honor’
“On the charge of vehicular manslaughter in the death of fatherine Thorne how do you Bod
Time seemed to stop Elara held her breath
The foreman looked directly at Penelope “We find the defendant guilty on all counts
17:09 Mon, May 11 M
