After His Heart Transplant My Husband Forgot His Daughter Chapter 18
I didn’t go back to Seattle for the trial.
The court let me attend over a secure video link from our lawyer’s office in San Diego. Mom sat beside me, holding my left hand the entire time.
Renata wore a dark blue suit, her hair perfectly styled.
If not for the monitoring bracelet on her ankle, she would have looked like the same woman who, with a few well-timed tears, could always get someone else to solve her problems.
The prosecutor began by presenting the 529 account records.
The forty-eight thousand dollars had been moved from my account to one in Renata’s name, and it had never gone to any mortgage institution.
Next, the so-called foreclosure notices were enlarged on the screen.
She had downloaded a template online. When the police searched her computer, they found the file, its edit history still intact.
Renata kept her head down, refusing to look at the jury.
Her attorney didn’t deny the fraud; he just shifted the blame onto Grady.
“Mr. Marsden transferred the money voluntarily.”
“He is an adult with full access to the account.”
“My client never forced him to neglect his own daughter.”
At that last sentence, Grady, sitting in the witness box, briefly closed his eyes. He looked even thinner than the last time I’d seen him.
The prosecutor asked, “Why did you go to Renata Sorrell’s apartment that day?”
“I had just discovered my wife and daughter were gone, and I wanted to ask her what else she had lied to me about.”
“Why was the door open?”
“It wasn’t shut all the way.”
“Why was the door open?”
“It wasn’t shut all the way.”
“What did you hear?”
Grady lifted his head and looked directly at Renata.
“She admitted the foreclosure notice was fake, and she admitted telling her son to pretend he was falling in the water at the pier.”
Renata whirled around in her seat.
“You’re lying!”
The judge’s gavel slammed down.
Her lawyer put a restraining hand on her arm.
Then the recording from the doorway was played.
“What foreclosure? I found a template online and changed the name, that’s all.”
Renata’s own laughter echoed through the courtroom.
Then came the line that had been burned into my memory for four years.
“Shame Elodie only injured her hand.”
Mom’s hand tightened around mine.
Renata’s lawyer stood to object, claiming the audio could have been edited.
The prosecutor didn’t argue. He simply produced the original phone Grady had turned over to the police. The recording’s metadata, file length, and the police chain-of-custody record proved it had never been altered.
Then the pier surveillance footage was projected onto the wall.
There was no sound.
There was no sound.
My eight-year-old self was pinned by the rope, my right hand trapped, reaching desperately toward Grady, who was only a few feet away. Finn stood in shallow water in his life jacket, the water barely reaching his waist.
Then he started to cry.
Grady turned his head. He saw me.
The next second, he ran past me and bent down to pick Finn up.
A wave from a passing boat slammed into the pier, and the rope snapped taut.
On the screen, I opened my mouth in a silent scream and crumpled to my knees.
The lawyer immediately paused the video.
“Do you want me to turn it off?” Mom whispered.
My right hand was shaking uncontrollably.
I pressed it against my leg to still it.
“No.”
The courtroom was silent.
Then Renata suddenly burst into tears.
“I only told Finn to cry a little!” she sobbed, turning to the jury. “How was I supposed to know Grady would actually ignore his own daughter? He made that choice, not me!”
Her lawyer’s face fell.
The prosecutor stood his ground, waiting until she finished.
Then he asked, “So you admit you instructed a child to feign distress in order to deliberately lure Mr. Marsden away from his daughter, who was already in a dangerous situation?”
The prosecutor stood his ground, waiting until she finished.
Then he asked, “So you admit you instructed a child to feign distress in order to deliberately lure Mr. Marsden away from his daughter, who was already in a dangerous situation?”
Renata finally realized what she had just said.
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
In her attempt to shove all the blame onto Grady, she had delivered the one confession the recording hadn’t captured.