Free Web NovelChapter 327: Conering The Hale Family
The moment Damian called for recess, the courtroom loosened into controlled movement. The jurors were escorted out first while Sophia remained seated beside Emily for a few seconds longer, her hand resting protectively over her daughter’s shoulder while reporters outside the courtroom doors shouted questions that no one inside could hear clearly.
Victor remained at the defense table with his hands beneath the polished wood, his fingers locked together so tightly that his knuckles had turned pale. Richard stood beside him, but there was no comfort in his presence. His face was rigid, his jaw clenched, and his eyes kept drifting toward the large screen where the vehicle data had been displayed only minutes earlier.
"Come with me," Richard said quietly.
Victor did not respond immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the chart that had shown the exact moment the autonomous system attempted to reduce the vehicle’s speed, followed by the moment he pressed the accelerator and seized control of the steering wheel. It was only a collection of lines and numbers, but it had become impossible to look away from.
Richard grabbed Victor’s arm and pulled him away from the table. Two defense attorneys followed them into a private consultation room beside the courtroom. The room was small, cold, and plain, with a long wooden table at its center and no windows. The moment the door shut behind them, Victor pulled his arm free.
"They have the data," Victor said.
Richard turned toward him slowly. "They have an interpretation of the data."
"I pressed the accelerator."
"Do not say that again."
Victor laughed once, but there was nothing amused in his voice. "Why? Because it happened?"
Richard’s eyes narrowed. "Because every word you say can be used against you. You are not speaking to your friends. You are not speaking to your family. You are in the middle of a trial that can destroy your life."
"A man is dead," Victor said, his voice rising despite himself. "A woman is barely walking. A little girl lost her leg. I was drunk. I took the wheel. What exactly am I supposed to say?"
"You say nothing," Richard replied sharply. "You sit in that courtroom. You look calm. You do not react when they show photographs. You do not stare at the victims. You do not look guilty. You allow your attorneys to do their job."
Victor stared at him. "Can they keep me out of prison?"
The room became silent.
One of the attorneys shifted awkwardly beside the table while the other lowered his eyes to the documents in his hands. Richard did not answer immediately, and that hesitation was enough to make Victor’s stomach sink.
Everyone knew if it were another judge, saving Victor would be better easy. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here.
"The goal," Richard said carefully, "is to prevent the prosecution from proving that you alone caused the crash. The vehicle malfunctioned. That is a fact. The company has acknowledged there was a fault. Their experts will testify. Our experts will testify. We create reasonable doubt, reduce the exposure, and if necessary, we appeal."
Victor’s eyes hardened. "That is not what I asked."
Richard exhaled slowly. "No one can promise you anything."
"You promised me nothing would happen."
"I promised I would fight for you."
Victor took a step backward. "You are already preparing for me to lose."
Richard’s expression turned cold. "I am preparing for every possible outcome."
"The firm," Victor muttered. "That is what you are protecting."
Richard did not deny it.
That silence settled heavily over the room. Victor had spent his entire life believing that the Hale name was a shield. He believed his father’s influence, the Black Sheep Firm, the politicians, the donors, and the people who owed Richard favors would always stand behind him. But now, standing inside a small consultation room while a dead man’s family sat only a few feet away, Victor finally understood that he was not the shield.
He was the liability.
One of the senior attorneys cleared his throat and stepped forward.
"Mr. Hale, the prosecution’s case has been effective. Marcus Doyle placed you at the club in an intoxicated state. The blood alcohol evidence is damaging. The vehicle data is damaging. Mrs. Morales gave the jury a face to attach to the consequences. But none of that means the case is over."
Victor turned toward him. "What do you have?"
"We have causation," the attorney answered. "The autonomous system malfunctioned. We do not need to convince the jury that you made no mistakes. We need to convince them that the malfunction was a substantial contributing cause. If the jury believes the software failure created the dangerous condition, then the prosecution’s highest charge becomes harder to prove."
Richard nodded once. "That is the only strategy that matters now."
The attorney opened a folder and placed several documents on the table.
"We will also return to Marcus Doyle. He was dismissed by the Hale family. He has a grievance. There were allegations that he drank while on duty. He received financial assistance for protection after agreeing to testify. We will argue that he has every reason to exaggerate your condition that night."
Victor stared down at the papers. "He did not exaggerate."
Richard’s face snapped toward him. "Stop."
Victor raised his eyes.
"You will not help them destroy you," Richard said. "Do you understand me?"
Victor did not answer. He only looked at his father for several long seconds before lowering his gaze again.
When the bailiff announced that court was resuming, Richard adjusted his suit and walked out first. Victor followed behind with the attorneys, his posture straight but his face noticeably paler than before. The courtroom was already filling again as the jurors returned to their seats.
Damian returned to the bench with the same calm expression he had worn throughout the trial. He did not look at Victor for long. He did not need to. His presence alone kept the courtroom controlled, even as reporters pressed against the glass doors outside and spectators whispered among themselves.
The defense called Professor Daniel Cross as its next witness. He was an older man with silver hair, a measured voice, and the relaxed confidence of someone who had spent decades explaining disasters to juries. Unlike Dr. Vale, he did not work for the vehicle manufacturer. He was introduced as an independent accident reconstruction expert who had reviewed the intersection footage, the vehicle data, the damage patterns, the road conditions, and the autonomous-driving system logs.
Professor Cross spoke carefully as he walked the jury through a digital reconstruction of the crash. The screen showed Victor’s vehicle moving toward the intersection, the traffic signal changing, the autonomous system issuing a reduction request, and the brief delay before the vehicle’s speed began to drop.
"The autonomous system did not respond within the expected safety window," Cross said. "It failed to properly interpret the traffic signal and did not apply emergency braking as quickly as it should have."
The defense attorney stepped closer. "Could that failure have created a dangerous situation?"
"Yes."
"Could it have materially contributed to the collision?"
"Yes."
"Could a driver, even a sober driver, have struggled to avoid the crash once the system malfunctioned at that speed?"
Professor Cross paused before answering. "Under certain conditions, yes."
The defense attorney allowed the answer to settle over the jury. He wanted them to see Victor not as the sole cause of the tragedy, but as a man trapped inside a failure that began before he took control.
Then the prosecution stood.
The prosecutor approached the witness stand with the same vehicle data displayed behind him. "Professor Cross, the vehicle was travelling at nearly ninety miles per hour, correct?"
"Yes."
"Was the autonomous system responsible for choosing that speed?"
"No."
"Did the system force Mr. Hale to consume alcohol before entering the vehicle?"
"No."
"Did it force him to manually take control of the steering wheel?"
"No."
"Did it force him to press the accelerator after the system attempted to reduce speed?"
"No."
"Did it force him to drive through a red light?"
Professor Cross’s expression tightened. "No."
The prosecutor nodded and pointed toward the chart. "Would you agree that a malfunction can create danger, but a driver can still make that danger worse?"
"Yes."
"Would you agree that an intoxicated driver manually accelerating toward a red light at nearly ninety miles per hour makes that danger worse?"
"Yes."
The courtroom became silent again.
The prosecutor allowed the silence to remain for a moment before returning to his table. The defense had gained what it needed. The autonomous system was flawed. The vehicle company had failed. But the prosecution had gained the larger truth. The malfunction did not force Victor to drink or speed. Victor had made those choices himself.
The defense attacked Marcus Doyle’s credibility afterward, presenting the circumstances of his dismissal and the allegations that he had been drinking while on duty. They suggested that Marcus had accepted help from Damian and now had a reason to make Victor look worse than he had been. Marcus did not return to the stand that day, but the implication was left hanging in the air for the jury to consider.
Damian did not allow the defense to turn the matter into something it was not. When one of the attorneys attempted to suggest that Damian’s protection arrangements influenced Marcus’s testimony, Damian’s voice cut through the courtroom calmly.
"Counsel, you may question the witness’s credibility based on evidence. You may not imply misconduct by this court without a factual basis."
The attorney immediately stepped back. "Understood, Your Honor."
Richard watched him from the defense table with a deepening frown. He had expected Damian to make a mistake. He expected emotion or some obvious sign that he was personally invested in Victor’s downfall. Instead, Damian gave him nothing.
Richard understood the danger of that.
If Damian remained this careful, then a conviction would be far more difficult to challenge later. There would be no obvious bias. No improper evidence or emotional outburst.
By the end of the day, the defense had exhausted most of its argument. The autonomous-driving malfunction remained their strongest point, but it was no longer enough to erase Victor’s actions. The jurors looked tired as they listened, but their eyes kept returning to the same evidence. The red light, speed, manual override and blood alcohol level.
Damian looked over the courtroom before speaking.
"The defense may call one final witness tomorrow morning if it chooses to do so. Following that, the court will proceed to closing arguments."
The gavel struck once.
Victor remained seated after everyone else began moving. His hands rested in his lap, but they were shaking again. Richard stood beside him and spoke into his phone before walking away from the table. He was already making calls to people who could help contain the damage.
Victor watched his father leave the courtroom without looking back. For the first time, he understood that Richard was preparing for a future where he might no longer be part of the family’s plans.
