Chapter 9 - The Trial of Liabilities
Six months later.
The trial of The People of the State of New York v. Miles Vance, Richard Sterling, and Marcus Vance took place in the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains.
Fallon had accepted a formal plea bargain four weeks prior: in exchange for pleading guilty to third-degree reckless endangerment and providing state's evidence against Miles, her felony assault charges were reduced. She was sentenced to two years of probation, three hundred hours of mandatory community service at a regional burn trauma center, and complete forfeiture of all digital media earnings.
Sibil had pleaded guilty to Obstruction of Justice, receiving a suspended nine-month sentence, five years of probation, and total financial liquidation of her Scarsdale estate to cover civil restitution orders.
On the final day of the corporate trial, I took the witness stand.
I wore a sharp grey suit. The silicone pad on my face was gone, replaced by a smooth, faint light-pink scar that ran in a neat line along my left cheekbone. Reconstructive laser therapy had restored most of the skin, though the nerve damage on that side would remain a permanent, minor numbness for the rest of my life.
I sat in the wooden witness box, looking directly at the defense table.
Miles Vance sat there, staring at his shoes. Richard Sterling sat beside his defense counsel, looking grey, defeated, and broken. Marcus Vance refused to look in my direction at all.
The Assistant District Attorney approached the stand. "Miss Ward, please state your name and current occupation for the record."
"Sloan Ward," I said clearly. "Chief Risk Officer and Managing Director of Ward Financial Advisory Services."
"Miss Ward," the prosecutor continued, gesturing to the defense table. "Looking at the defendants present today, did you ever suspect that your sister's actions at her wedding were part of a broader corporate conspiracy?"
"I am an actuary," I testified, my voice carrying cleanly to every corner of the packed courtroom. "I do not rely on suspicion. I rely on variance analysis. When a low-probability, high-impact event occurs in conjunction with suspicious financial flows, it is never an accident. It is always an engineered liability."
I then spent two hours walking the jury through the complete financial evidentiary chain:
The $1.1 million wire transfers from the Cayman account.
The chemical purchase invoices signed by Miles Vance.
The internal risk logs at Vanguard-Apex showing Richard Sterling's fraud.
The audio files from Camera Two proving pre-meditation.
When I finished my testimony, the defense attorneys declined to cross-examine me.
They knew that questioning an actuary on her own evidentiary math was a suicide mission.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours.
When the verdict was read at 4:30 PM, the jury foreman stood up and delivered thirty-eight guilty verdicts across all three defendants.
Miles Vance: Sentenced to 12 years in state prison for Criminal Facilitation of a Chemical Assault, Conspiracy, and Securities Fraud.
Richard Sterling: Sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for Wire Fraud, Corporate Embezzlement, and Witness Retaliation.
Marcus Vance: Sentenced to 9 years in state prison for Obstruction of Justice, Digital Fraud, and Illegal Retaliation.
As the judge slammed his gavel down, terminating the proceedings, federal marshals stepped forward and snapped handcuffs on all three men.
I stood up from the gallery, smoothing my jacket, and walked out of the courtroom into the bright afternoon sunlight.
Outside on the courthouse steps, fifty reporters were waiting.
"Miss Ward! Miss Ward!" a reporter from the Wall Street Journal called out, pushing a microphone toward me. "How do you feel about the sentencing?!"
May you like
I stopped on the top step, looking down at the crowd of reporters and camera crews.
"Justice isn't a feeling," I said calmly. "Justice is simply a debt that has been fully collected."
