Chapter 6 - THE TRIAL BEFORE THE WEDDING FLOWERS DIED
Arthur’s trial began eleven months after the wedding.
By then, the white flowers from the ballroom had long since been discarded.
But photographs of them appeared throughout the courtroom.
They showed elegance financed by theft.
A wedding cake paid for with retirement money.
Champagne purchased using deposits from families waiting for homes.
The prosecution began with Rebecca.
Her journal.
The recording.
The remains beneath the concrete.
Then they presented Arthur’s hidden room.
Each drawer demonstrated preparation.
Surveillance.
Forged medical reports.
False signatures.
Insurance policies.
Arthur did not simply react when women challenged him.
He built systems to destroy their credibility in advance.
Brooke testified first.
She described his disappearance.
The empty accounts.
Their son waiting by the window for a father who claimed to be working abroad.
Arthur’s attorney suggested she wanted revenge.
Brooke looked at the jury.
“I wanted child support.”
“Then I wanted the truth.”
“Revenge would not have raised my son.”
Sienna testified next.
She wore a simple gray suit.
No diamonds.
No dramatic makeup.
She admitted helping isolate me.
She admitted spending stolen funds.
She admitted signing documents she refused to read because wealth felt more important than questions.
Arthur’s attorney asked whether she blamed him for her choices.
“No.”
“I blame him for his crimes.”
“I blame myself for mine.”
The answer strengthened her credibility.
Then I testified.
Arthur smiled when I entered.
The same smile he once used when convincing me to trust him.
It no longer affected me.
I described our engagement.
The share transfer.
The investigation.
The black gift box.
His attorney asked why I chose the wedding to reveal the evidence.
“Because the ceremony was about to create another public lie.”
“Could you not have warned your sister privately?”
“I tried to warn my family for two years.”
“They called me emotional.”
“Public evidence was the only language they had not learned to dismiss.”
He suggested I had been jealous of Sienna.
“I grieved the sister I thought I had.”
“That is different from wanting her harmed.”
My father testified under a plea agreement.
He admitted helping Arthur move Rebecca’s body.
He claimed he believed she was already dead.
The recording showed him discussing concrete before calling police.
The jury rejected his attempt to minimize his role.
Arthur was convicted of murder, financial fraud, identity theft, bigamy, conspiracy, and theft from employee accounts.
Dad was convicted separately for fraud, obstruction, and helping conceal Rebecca’s death.
Mother pleaded guilty to forgery and financial conspiracy.
Sienna received probation and restitution requirements because of her cooperation.
Before sentencing, Arthur turned toward me.
“You ruined everyone to prove you were right.”
“No.”
I looked at Brooke and her son.
At Rebecca’s sister.
At employees who lost retirement money.
“I proved what you did.”
The judge sentenced him to life in prison.
As deputies led him away, he glanced toward Sienna.
“You would still be nothing without me.”
She answered quietly.
May you like
“I became nothing while trying to become yours.”
Then she turned away.
