Chapter 5 - The Medical Record
The hour of recess felt like it lasted for a painful eternity.
When the heavy wooden doors finally opened again, the atmosphere in the room had drastically changed.
The judge returned to the bench with a deeply troubled expression on his face.
Ryan sat confidently at the plaintiff's table, waiting for my inevitable surrender.
Evelyn gave me a look of pure, toxic motherly disappointment.
Mister Hayes stood up slowly, looking completely defeated.
"Your Honor, the defense has an unexpected statement to make to the court."
Ryan smiled, clearly believing he had won the war.
I stood up, resting my hands flat on the smooth wooden table to hide their trembling.
I looked back at the gallery.
Ethan was staring intensely at his encrypted smartwatch.
Suddenly, the small screen illuminated with a bright green light.
Ethan looked up at me and gave a sharp, definitive nod.
His daughter was safe.
I turned my attention back to the judge and took a deep breath.
"Your Honor, the defense withdraws any consideration of a plea agreement."
Ryan's smug smile instantly vanished from his face.
"We respectfully request that Major Walker take the stand immediately," I concluded.
The prosecutor jumped up, holding a brand new stack of papers.
"Your Honor, before we proceed with this mystery witness, we have crucial new evidence."
The judge rubbed his temples in frustration.
"What is it now, counselor?"
"We just received the defendant's sealed medical records from the years she claims she was deployed."
He handed a thick file to the bailiff.
"These documents prove that Claire Cross was not in the Middle East."
"She was actually confined to a private psychiatric facility in Switzerland during those exact dates."
Mister Hayes grabbed a copy of the file and rapidly scanned the pages.
He turned pale.
"Claire, this is completely flawless," he whispered in panic.
"It has your real medical history, your blood type, and the signature of your childhood physician."
I looked at Evelyn, who was wiping a fake tear from her cheek.
My mother had supplied my most intimate childhood medical details to forge this nightmare.
She was willing to brand her own daughter as violently insane just to secure the company.
The judge examined the documents closely.
"This completely contradicts the affidavit provided by Major Walker," the judge noted sternly.
"Therefore, I am ordering an immediate psychiatric evaluation of the defendant before we proceed."
Ryan quickly stood up with a look of fake brotherly concern.
"Your Honor, given her severe delusions, she is a danger to herself and the public."
"We request that she be remanded to a secure psychiatric facility until the evaluation is complete."
The judge raised his gavel to agree with the request.
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Before he could strike the wood, the back doors of the courtroom swung open again.
A man wearing a dark FBI windbreaker marched straight down the aisle holding a federal warrant.
