Chapter 5 - The Legal WarThe trial was a circus. The media swarmed the courthouse, painting Theo as a neglectful father who had suddenly discovered a convenient heir to secure his fortune.
Thorne’s lawyers were vicious. They cross-examined Helen Matthews until she was in tears, trying to prove Lara had been mentally unstable when she made the decision to carry Ava.
Theo sat at the defense table, his hands white as he gripped the desk.
"Mr. Wilder," Thorne’s lawyer smirked, "is it true you hadn't spoken to Lara for three years before her death? That you didn't even know she was undergoing implantation? How can a man who didn't know his own wife was pregnant be a fit father for a child with complex medical needs?"
Theo stood up, not waiting for his own attorney.
"I was a coward," Theo said, the courtroom falling into a silence so profound the ticking clock could be heard. "I was a man who preferred a clean, sterile, predictable failure over the messy, uncertain hope of being a father. I wasn't just unfit then; I was dead inside. But look at her."
He pointed to Ava, who sat in her chair, looking at him with absolute, unwavering trust.
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"She is the living evidence that even when we stop believing in miracles, miracles persist. She isn't my 'heir.' She is my life."
The jury looked at the little girl, then at the man who had traded his empire for a six-year-old’s hand.
