Chapter 7 - THE HOUSE OF CARDS COLLAPSES
The civil trial took place four months later. Because Carter was effectively bankrupt, he showed up to the virtual deposition looking like a ghost. He had no high-powered lawyer—he couldn't afford one.
Sarah was merciless. She laid out the paper trail with surgical precision. She presented the forged medical documents. She played the audio of Carter attempting to break into my apartment and blaming his wife. Karla, eager to save herself, had turned over additional documents proving Carter had orchestrated the plan to put me in the facility. They were tearing each other apart like wolves.
The judge, a stern woman who had zero tolerance for elder abuse, did not mince words.
"Mr. Carter, what you have done to your mother is not only legally reprehensible, it is morally bankrupt," the judge declared. "You systematically stripped a grieving widow of her life savings, forced her into domestic servitude, and plotted to strip away her basic human freedoms for your own financial gain."
The ruling was total. Carter was ordered to pay full restitution of the 200,000 dollars, plus punitive damages. Because he couldn't pay, the court ordered the liquidation of his remaining assets, including the forced sale of the San Diego house. The criminal investigation for the forged medical documents and the false police report was also moving forward, carrying potential jail time.
When the screen clicked off, ending the trial, I sat in Sarah’s office and exhaled a breath I felt I had been holding for five years.
May you like
"You did it, Marissa," Sarah said, handing me a glass of water. "It's over."
"No," I smiled, looking out the window at the Sandia Mountains glowing pink in the sunset. "It's just beginning."
