Chương 12
“Yes.”
“You questioned your niece about her father’s behavior.”
“Once. I should not have.”
“You contacted your sister’s attorney repeatedly.”
“Yes.”
“You visited a confidential residence after being asked not to.”
“Yes.”
“You interfered.”
Liam looked at Anna. She sat behind the prosecutor, hands folded.
“Yes,” he said.
Baines paused. He had expected resistance.
“You admit that?”
“I interfered. I was frightened, angry, and trying to control what happened next.”
“And your sister objected.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you continued to believe you knew what was best for her.”
“For a while.”
Baines glanced toward the jury. “Doctor, is it possible that your certainty influenced her account?”
Liam breathed once before answering.
“My behavior may have influenced when she spoke to me and what she was willing to tell me. It did not put bruises around her throat.”
Baines’s expression tightened.
“Please answer the question asked.”
“I did.”
“Is it possible your sister adopted your interpretation of an accident?”
“No.”
“You cannot know that.”
“I know what I saw.”
“You saw injuries. You did not see how they occurred.”
“That’s correct.”
“So when you said, ‘She didn’t fall,’ you were stating something you could not know.”
“I was stating that a fall did not adequately explain what I saw.”
“That is not the same sentence, is it?”
“No.”
“Your original sentence was dramatic.”
“It was.”
“Accusatory.”
“Yes.”
“Personal.”
Liam looked at Ethan.
Ethan’s face remained composed, but his right hand had closed around a pen.
“Yes,” Liam said. “She is my sister.”
Baines returned to his table.
Liam stepped down without looking at Anna again. In the hallway, his hands began to shake.
Helen was waiting near the elevator. He had not known she attended the trial.
“You told the truth,” she said.
“I gave him everything.”
“He already had it.”
“I made myself look unreliable.”
“You made yourself look human.”
“That is not generally encouraged in expert witnesses.”
“You were not an expert witness.”
The elevator doors opened.
Helen stepped inside. “You were a brother who noticed something.”
The doors closed before he answered.
Anna testified the next morning.
She began with the apartment application Ethan discovered inside her email. She had toured the apartment while Sophie was at school and intended to leave after arranging legal advice. Ethan saw a confirmation message on a tablet linked to her account.
He waited until Sophie was at Margaret’s house.
At first, he spoke calmly. He asked whether Anna was unhappy. He offered to attend counseling. He cried. When she refused to surrender her car keys, he took her phone.
“He said I was kidnapping Sophie,” Anna testified.
“What happened when you tried to leave?” the prosecutor asked.
“He stood in front of the door.”
“Did he touch you?”
“He grabbed my forearm.”
“Then what?”
“I pulled away. He slapped me.”
Her voice remained even.
“I told him I was leaving anyway. He pushed me against the dresser. I hit my mouth. I tried to yell. He put one hand under my jaw and one around my throat.”
“Could you breathe?”
“Not well.”
“What did you do?”
“I scratched his wrist. He pushed harder.”
“Do you remember falling?”
“No.”
“What is the next thing you remember?”
“The hospital lights.”
The prosecutor showed the jury photographs taken by the forensic nurse. Anna looked at each one. She did not cry.
Baines began his cross-examination gently.
He asked about the good years. The vacations. The anniversary posts. The birthday message in which Anna called Ethan the safest person she knew.
“That was eight years ago,” she said.
“Was it true then?”
“I thought it was.”
He asked about her anxiety and the medication. He asked about arguments concerning money. He asked whether she had thrown a glass during one fight.
“Yes.”
“Did it strike Mr. Vale?”
“No.”
“Did you intend it to?”
“No. I threw it at the sink.”
“Is throwing objects violent?”
“Yes.”
“Did you apologize?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mr. Vale forgive you?”
“He said he did.”
Baines showed her messages sent after previous alleged incidents. In one, she told Ethan she was sorry for provoking him.
“What did you mean by provoking?”
“Disagreeing.”
“That is your interpretation now.”
“That was his word then.”
Baines produced another message.
I love you. I know you would never hurt me on purpose.
“Did you write that?”
“Yes.”
“Was it true?”
Anna looked at the screen.
“I wanted it to be.”
“Mrs. Vale, you have described Mr. Vale as controlling. Yet you handled household purchases, worked outside the home, drove your own vehicle, maintained friendships, and possessed your own phone.”
“Yes.”
“You were not imprisoned.”
“No.”
“You could leave the house.”
“Usually.”
“You could call police.”
“Yes.”
“You never did.”
“No.”
“You could call your brother.”
“Yes.”
“You did not.”
“No.”
“Because until the night of the alleged assault, you did not believe you were in danger.”
Anna glanced at Sophie’s empty place in the gallery, though the child was not attending.
“No,” she said. “Because I believed danger was what happened when I made him angry.”
Baines stopped.
Anna continued before he could object.
“I thought if I stayed calm enough, explained better, kept Sophie quiet, didn’t embarrass him, didn’t spend too much, didn’t ask at the wrong time, then the bad part wouldn’t happen. I thought that meant I had control.”
Baines approached the stand. “You have had nearly a year to prepare that answer.”
“Yes.”
“Your therapists helped you understand your marriage.”
“Yes.”
“Advocates taught you language such as coercion and control.”
“Yes.”
“Your attorney prepared you for testimony.”
“Yes.”
“Your brother repeatedly insisted you had been assaulted.”
“Yes.”
“So many people have helped shape how you describe this event.”
Anna looked at the jury.
“Yes,” she said. “That is how I finally understood what happened to me.”
Baines turned toward the defense table, then back.
“Or how you learned to describe an accident as a crime.”
Anna’s eyes moved to Ethan.
May you like
For the first time during her testimony, his gaze dropped.
“I loved him after he hurt me,” she said. “I missed him after he hurt me. I lied for him after he hurt me. None of that made it an accident.”
