Chapter 9 - The Final Sentence
The judge, a formidable elderly woman named Justice Eleanor Vance (no relation), adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses and looked down at the defense table with an expression of pure, icy disdain.
"Chloe Vance and Beatrice Vance," Justice Vance declared, her voice booming across the vaulted courtroom. "In my thirty-five years on the judicial bench, I have rarely witnessed a display of human behavior as heartless, depraved, and utterly devoid of conscience as what was demonstrated on that yacht."
The judge picked up her heavy wooden gavel, resting her hands flat against the bench.
"You targeted a grieving widow and a defenseless six-year-old child," Justice Vance continued. "You stole a dead father's precious heirloom out of pathetic vanity, and when that child cried for her father, you hurled her into a freezing sea to drown in the dark. You are a danger to human society."
She turned her gaze to Chloe.
"Chloe Vance, for the charge of Attempted First-Degree Murder and Aggravated Child Abuse, I sentence you to thirty-five years in the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, without the possibility of parole for twenty-eight years."
Chloe shrieked, kicking her legs as she fell to the floor, weeping hysterically. "No! Please! I'll die in there! Mom! Help me!"
Justice Vance didn't even flinch. She turned her eyes onto Beatrice.
"Beatrice Vance, for the charges of Grand Larceny, Child Endangerment, and Accessory to Attempted Murder, I sentence you to eighteen years in state prison."
BANG!
The heavy wooden gavel struck the block, the loud crack echoing through the room like a gunshot.
"Court is adjourned."
Four uniformed court officers stepped forward, grabbing Chloe and Beatrice by their arms, hauling them toward the side door leading to the holding cells. As they were dragged away, Beatrice turned her tear-streaked face toward me, holding her chained hands out in a desperate, pathetic plea.
"Victoria! Please!" Beatrice wailed, her voice cracking with hysterical terror. "Forgive me! I'm your mother! Please don't leave us to die in prison! Victoria!"
I stood in the front row of the courtroom, my face calm, my posture straight, holding the Ceylon sapphire pendant tightly in my hand.
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I didn't utter a single word. I simply looked into my mother's terrified eyes with cold, absolute indifference until the steel doors slammed shut behind them, cutting off her cries forever.
They were gone. The nightmare that had haunted my life for eight months was officially over.
