Chapter 8 - The Legal Battle BeginsThree weeks later, the preliminary trial commenced.
Reporters and media crews swarmed the courthouse entrance. The case of "The Aunt Who Tortured Her Nephew and Niece for Inheritance" became the nation's biggest news story. Kate appeared in an orange prison jumpsuit, her hair unkempt, completely stripped of her former elegant aura.
Kate's defense attorney—a seasoned veteran known for representing the ultra-wealthy—tried to flip the narrative. He argued that Lily's purple notebook was merely "the product of a traumatized child's vivid imagination following her mother's passing."
"Dismissing an eight-year-old child's cry for help is pure cruelty," Miller stood up to counter. "And forensic evidence does not lie."
Miller projected the full suite of recovered data from the old phone: video clips, audio recordings of Kate's threatening voice, along with official toxicology reports from the state medical examiner.
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Gasp of horror echoed through the courtroom. The judge had to repeatedly bang his gavel to restore order.
Kate sat at the defense table, her head buried in her hands. Her ruin was absolute and irreversible.
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