Chapter 7 - VIVIENNE’S BEST DEFENSE
Vivienne hired a trial lawyer named Caroline Shaw.
Caroline’s strategy was intelligent.
Separate everything.
The kick?
An emotional outburst after Elena collapsed.
Cruel.
Not proof of poisoning.
The “street rat” comment?
Disgusting family language.
Not fraud.
The family settlement?
A legal negotiation.
Not extortion.
The wine?
No direct proof Vivienne poured anything into it.
The texts?
Ambiguous.
The notary?
Scheduled by Elena, not Vivienne.
Caroline attacked the story prosecutors wanted:
A mother poisons her hidden daughter to steal a dynasty.
Too dramatic.
Too simple.
Mara warned Elena:
“She’s right about one thing.”
“What?”
“Do not let the headline become the case.”
So they didn’t.
They built categories.
Dominic’s debt.
Vivienne’s messages.
The settlement draft.
The concealed financial conflicts.
The manipulated wine.
The effort to obtain control.
The kick.
The witness accounts.
The attempted destruction of records after the police arrived.
That last part hurt Vivienne most.
Security logs showed her assistant tried to remotely delete a folder labeled FAMILY HARMONY from the home server sixteen minutes after Elena left by ambulance.
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The deletion failed because Elena had already activated a preservation order through Mara.
Now the “family matter” looked like evidence.
