My father sat beside Marcus, shoulders tense but posture upright. He’d practiced holding himself steady. He wasn’t the man who’d flinched away from conflict anymore. He’d changed—slowly, painfully—but he’d changed.
Paige sat behind us, face pale, hands folded so tightly her knuckles went white.
When proceedings began, Victoria’s attorney opened with a narrative.
He painted Victoria as a devoted spouse managing household finances for a stressed, aging attorney. He suggested Gerald had given verbal consent for asset transfers “for protection” and “estate planning,” and now, under pressure from his daughter, he was rewriting history.
He implied Bonnie was ambitious, resentful, and eager to control her father’s wealth.
He used phrases like family dispute, misunderstanding, emotional conflict.
It was a clever attempt.
It didn’t matter.
Because then Patricia Sloan testified.
Patricia didn’t have drama in her. She had precision.