I Signed Away Eight Million To Leave Him Chapter 35
My father’s criminal trial began several months later.
When I took the witness stand, he kept his head down the entire time.
His lawyer stressed over and over that I had only been a child.
“Memories can be altered by what people hear later, can’t they?”
“Some can.”
“Then how can you be sure your mother didn’t simply fall?”
“Because I heard him beating her, and I saw him lock the door.”
“You did not actually see each blow land.”
“But I saw that he never called a doctor.”
I looked toward my father.
“And I saw who vanished the next morning.”
Eli testified after me.
He didn’t exaggerate what he knew.
He said only that he had heard beatings from outside our cottage many times over the years and had seen me come to school with bruises.
Beatrice testified that my mother had long wanted to leave but feared my father’s retaliation.
By the time she returned from New York, my father and the household cash were both gone.
In the old case file, every statement given back then pointed to the same night.
Time had passed, but his new story hadn’t changed the facts.