Chapter 7 - THE PRE-TRIAL MANEUVER
The cold front that gripped central Ohio deepened over the weekend, burying Columbus under six inches of hard, crystalline ice.
Inside the sleek, mahogany-paneled conference room of Cross & Associates on Monday morning, the heating vents hummed quietly against the winter wind rattling the high-rise windows.
Evelyn Cross sat at the head of the conference table, her reading glasses perched on the bridge of her sharp nose, flipping through a three-inch-thick legal binder tabbed with dozens of colored adhesive markers.
"Scott’s attorney, Richard Sterling, reached out to me two hours ago," Evelyn said, not looking up from the documents. "He submitted a proposed consent decree."
I sat across from her, my hands wrapped around a paper coffee cup. "What are they offering?"
"They want to sweep the entire Christmas Eve incident under a mutual non-disclosure agreement," Evelyn replied with a dry, humorless smirk. "Scott agrees to keep the alternating holiday schedule, but offers to pay one hundred percent of Hazel’s private school tuition and increase your baseline child support by thirty percent. In exchange, you withdraw the criminal complaint with the Delaware County Sheriff and stipulate to the court that the incident was an 'unfortunate domestic miscommunication regarding adult supervision.'"
I let out a short, quiet laugh. "They really think everything has a price tag, don't they?"
"People like Vanessa Vance and Richard Sterling believe money is a universal solvent," Evelyn said, looking up over her glasses, her sharp blue eyes locking onto mine. "They believe that if you wave enough cash in front of a divorced mother, she’ll fold. What they don't realize is that you aren't fighting for a financial settlement. You're fighting for your child's soul."
"What happens if we reject the consent decree?"
"We go to Courtroom 4B on Thursday morning," Evelyn said, tapping her pen against the binder. "We put Deputy Miller on the stand. We introduce the 911 dispatch audio. We play the voice recording from your car. We present the photographic inventory of the house. And then, we introduce our star witness."
I tilted my head. "Evelyn Bennett?"
"Scott's own mother," Evelyn Cross confirmed, a slow, predatory smile spreading across her features. "Richard Sterling has no idea she’s testifying for us. He assumes she’s siding with her son. When she takes that stand and testifies under oath that Scott confessed to her that he intentionally locked Hazel out of the family outing to 'teach her a lesson' at Vanessa's insistence, it’s game over."
She paused, leaning forward across the table.
"However, Laura... there is one complication you need to be prepared for."
"What complication?"
"Sterling has filed an emergency motion requesting an in-camera interview between Judge Callahan and Hazel."
My stomach tightened into a hard knot. "They want to drag Hazel into a judge's private chambers?"
"Yes. It's a standard high-conflict defense tactic. Sterling hopes Hazel will get overwhelmed, cry, and say she loves her daddy and misses him. If the child expresses a desire to see her father, it makes it much harder for Callahan to completely terminate unsupervised parenting time."
I looked down at the table, my mind racing. Hazel was nine. She was sensitive, empathetic to a fault, and had spent four years desperate for her father’s approval. Scott had spent years manipulating her into believing that his affection was something she had to earn through perfect behavior.
"Has Dr. Aris completed the psychological intake report?" I asked.
"Dr. Aris finished it yesterday," Evelyn said, sliding a sealed envelope across the wood. "And that, my dear, is why Sterling’s maneuver is going to blow up in his face."
I opened the envelope and scanned the summary page.
Dr. Aris, a renowned pediatric trauma psychologist with thirty years of clinical experience, had documented Hazel’s statements during their two-hour session:
“Patient exhibits classic symptoms of acute psychological abandonment trauma. Minor repeatedly expressed fear that her value to her father is conditional upon her subservience to her stepmother and step-siblings. Minor recounted multiple prior instances of being excluded from family meals, being forced to eat in her bedroom when step-siblings had playdates, and being told by father’s fiancée that she was a 'burden from a broken past.' Minor specifically stated: 'When they turned off the porch light and drove away, I thought Daddy was throwing me away because I wasn't pretty enough for the train.'”
Tears of white-hot fury stung my eyes.
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"She thought he was throwing her away," I whispered, the words choking in my throat.
"Callahan reads these reports thoroughly," Evelyn Cross said, her voice dropping into a register of pure, lethal certainty. "Richard Sterling wants an in-camera interview? We will gladly agree to it. Let Judge Callahan look into that little girl's eyes. Let him hear from her own lips what it felt like to stand in the dark while her father rode away on a Christmas train."
