Chapter 14 - The Doctor's Stand

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The prosecution called Dr. Aris, the emergency room physician who treated me that night, to the stand.

Dr. Aris was a calm, clinical presence. She detailed the extensive bruising on my wrists and ankles, and the severe trauma to my spine.

"Doctor," Ms. Sterling asked, "in your professional medical opinion, were these injuries consistent with a woman being restrained to prevent self-harm?"

"Absolutely not," Dr. Aris replied firmly. "The angle of the suspension, combined with the blunt force trauma to the abdomen, indicates a deliberate, prolonged assault. Restraining someone to prevent harm does not involve beating a pregnant belly until fetal demise occurs."

The jury shuddered.

But the defense attorney was a master of manipulation. He approached the podium for cross-examination.

"Dr. Aris, you noted in your initial chart that Rachel Vance was highly distressed, correct?"

"She had just been brutally tortured and lost her child. Distress is the standard baseline," the doctor snapped back.

"Yes, but did she not tell you she felt 'out of her mind' during the pregnancy?" The lawyer pulled out a forged psychiatric evaluation from a clinic I had never visited. "Did you review her history of psychotic breaks?"

"I treat the physical trauma in front of me," Dr. Aris held her ground. "The physical evidence proves torture."

"Or a desperate husband using the only tools he had to stop a violent episode," the lawyer concluded, turning back to the jury with a sympathetic sigh.

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During a recess, I sat in the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face. The trial was slipping. The jury was looking at Daniel with pity instead of horror.

I looked in the mirror, tracing the faint bruises fading on my neck. The trial wouldn't be won by doctors or evidence. It was going to come down to me.