Chapter 12 - The Federal Trial
Six months later, Courtroom 2201 of the Dallas Federal Courthouse was packed to maximum capacity for the final criminal trial of Vivienne Vance and Bradley Thorne.
The jury box was filled with twelve impartial citizens who spent four weeks reviewing thousands of pages of encrypted telemetry, banking ledgers, and forensic toxicological reports.
Vivienne sat at the defense table looking gaunt, her once-flawless blonde hair chopped short, her arrogant posture permanently crushed beneath thirty-four felony convictions.
Bradley Thorne sat three chairs away from her, staring at the floor in complete, hopeless ruin, having surrendered his law license and personal fortune.
When called to deliver my victim impact statement as the legal guardian of the surviving children, I walked up to the witness stand with steady, measured strides.
I stood tall before the court, looking directly into the eyes of the woman who had thought she could murder my brother and starve his babies without consequence.
“Vivienne, when you locked Noah and Chloe in that dark cellar, you believed you were burying the only witnesses to your greed,” I testified, every word hitting the room like an iron hammer.
“You believed that a six-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl were disposable obstacles on your path to corporate power.”
“You forgot that the blood that runs through those children’s veins was forged in honor, courage, and an unbreakable will to survive.”
“Today, those children are thriving in the light, while you will spend the rest of your natural life in the cold dark you created.”
The courtroom remained in profound, reverent silence as I stepped down from the witness stand and returned to my seat beside Luca.
The jury deliberated for less than twenty minutes before returning to the courtroom with unanimous guilty verdicts on all sixty-two felony counts.
Judge Evelyn Cross slammed her heavy wooden gavel onto the bench: BAM!
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“Vivienne Vance and Bradley Thorne are convicted of capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, child torture, and federal racketeering.”
“Sentencing will proceed immediately.”
