Chapter 60 Planting Doubts
The next day, Aiden took the stand.
He was calmer than Ariella, more prepared. Sarah walked him through his father’s investigation, the evidence they’d found, the timeline of events.
Then Pierce stood.
“Mr. Frost, you inherited Frost Industries when your father died, correct?”
“Yes.”
“A company worth approximately three billion dollars?”
“Approximately.”
“That’s quite an inheritance for an eighteen-year-old. But there was a condition, wasn’t there? You had to be married to inherit control?”
“According to the bylaws, yes.”
“And conveniently, you got married just weeks before your father’s death. Almost like it was planned.”
“It was planned. My father arranged it…”
“Your father arranged for you to marry a stranger so you could inherit a three-billion-dollar company. And then he conveniently provided you with evidence against his main business rival. Don’t you find that suspicious?”
“I find it complicated. But I don’t find it suspicious.”
“Really? Your father spends six years claiming to investigate James Winters. Never goes to authorities. Never pursues legal action. Then on his deathbed, he hands you a company and a scapegoat. That doesn’t strike you as convenient?”
“My father was protecting us…”
“Or protecting himself. Mr. Frost, isn’t it true you have no financial training?”
“I was learning…”
“Yes or no.”
“No formal training, no.”
“And isn’t it true that when you took over Frost Industries, the company was already under investigation for financial irregularities?”
“Yes, but…”
“And isn’t it possible your father was the one responsible for those irregularities? That he embezzled the money and blamed Mr. Winters?”
“No. The evidence clearly shows…”
“Evidence your father compiled. Evidence that protects his legacy and destroys his enemy. Very convenient evidence indeed.”
It went on for hours. Pierce systematically dismantling their credibility, their motives, their entire case.
By the end of the week, Ariella felt hollowed out.
“Are we losing?” she asked Marcus that Friday night.
“It’s hard to say. The evidence is strong. But Pierce is creating doubt.”
“That’s all he needs, right? Reasonable doubt?”
“Yes.”
“So we’re losing.”
“We’re fighting. That’s different.”
But it didn’t feel different.
That weekend, Ariella and Aiden barely spoke. Both processing what the trial had exposed, not just about the case, but about themselves. About the contract that had started everything. About whether their relationship could be trusted when it had begun as a transaction.
On Sunday night, Ariella found Aiden in his father’s study.
“Do you ever wonder if Pierce is right?” she asked quietly.
“About what?”
“About us. About whether we can trust anything that came from your father’s manipulation.”
Aiden looked up from the papers he’d been reviewing. “Every day.”
“Really?”
“Every single day. I wonder if what I feel for you is real or if I’ve been conditioned to feel it. If our whole relationship is just another layer of my father’s control.”
“That’s terrifying.”
“Yeah.”
“So what do we do?”
He stood, crossed to her. “We choose. Again. Every day. We choose to believe this is real. Because the alternative…living in doubt forever…that’s worse than taking the risk.”
“What if we’re wrong?”
“Then we’re wrong together.”
She kissed him, desperate and searching. Trying to find truth in the connection between them. Trying to believe that what they’d built was stronger than the foundation it stood on.
On Monday, the prosecution rested.
On Tuesday, the defense called its first witness: a forensic accountant who’d worked for Winters.
He testified that all of Winters’ transactions were legal. That Richard Frost had equal access to the accounts. That the timeline could support either narrative.
Then he said something that changed everything.
“I reviewed Mr. Frost’s personal accounts as well. Found some interesting transfers. Money moving from Frost Industries to shell companies to Richard Frost’s personal accounts. Over fifteen million dollars over five years.”
The courtroom exploded.
“That’s not possible,” Aiden said.
But the accountant had receipts. Bank statements. Wire transfers. All pointing to Richard.
Sarah Chen looked blindsided. The jury looked confused. And Winters looked vindicated.
They recessed for the day. Marcus pulled them into a conference room.
“Those accounts are fabricated. They have to be.”
“Can we prove that?” Aiden asked.
“I don’t know. Our accountants will need to examine them. But this is bad. This is really bad.”
“He’s framing a dead man,” Ariella said. “Because dead men can’t defend themselves.”
“And it might work,” Marcus said. “Because we can’t definitively prove Richard didn’t do this. Not without his testimony.”
That night, Ariella lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
“What if Richard did do it?” she whispered.
“He didn’t.”
“But what if he did? What if he was guilty and he framed Winters? What if everything we’ve been fighting for is a lie?”
“Then we’re fighting for Ethan. For Catherine. For all the other victims. Even if Richard was guilty too, that doesn’t make Winters innocent.”
“Does it make us wrong?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
They fell asleep in doubt.
And woke up to more.