Chapter 7 - The TrialMax’s federal trial began fourteen months later.
Rachel testified for three days.
Celeste for two.
Peter Hall for almost a week.
I testified for forty-seven minutes.
Max watched me the entire time.
The prosecutor asked:
“Mr. Lawson, did you access Northstar systems on the dates shown in these logs?”
“No.”
“How can you be certain?”
I explained the IP-address mismatch.
Server certificates.
Archived authentication data.
Boring.
Technical.
Beautifully boring.
Facts without drama.
Max’s attorney attempted to make me emotional.
“You were angry when you discovered your wife’s affair?”
“Yes.”
“Humiliated?”
“Yes.”
“Did you want revenge?”
“For about twenty minutes.”
Several jurors smiled.
The attorney did not.
“You expect this jury to believe you independently uncovered evidence against the man sleeping with your wife and acted without revenge?”
“No.”
He looked surprised.
“I expect them to look at the evidence.”
That ended most of his strategy.
Rachel was harder to watch.
Max’s attorney displayed their messages.
Flirting.
Hotel arrangements.
Declarations.
Private jokes about me.
One:
Andrew would audit a birthday card if you gave him enough time.
The courtroom laughed.
I did not.
Rachel cried on the stand.
The attorney asked:
“You loved Mr. Vaughn?”
“I thought I did.”
“You planned to leave your husband?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
That was the first time I heard it.
Not merely affair.
She had planned to leave.
I looked down.
Even after everything, new betrayal could still find unvisited rooms.
The attorney continued:
“And when Max refused to leave his wife, you turned against him?”
Rachel looked up.
“He told me he was divorced.”
“Did you ever verify that?”
“No.”
“Convenient.”
Then the prosecutor redirected.
“Ms. Lawson, did your embarrassment cause Max Vaughn to create Blackridge two years before your affair?”
“No.”
“Did your marriage cause him to forge Andrew Lawson’s access logs?”
“No.”
“Did your jealousy create six staged phones in Room 1618?”
“No.”
“Did you prepare the document titled Rachel Exit?”
“No.”
The jury understood.
Rachel had done wrong.
That did not make Max innocent.
After six weeks, the verdict arrived.
Wire fraud.
Securities fraud.
Money laundering.
Identity-related offenses.
Obstruction.
Conspiracy.
Multiple counts.
Guilty.
Max showed almost no emotion.
Then the judge denied immediate release pending sentencing.
That changed him.
May you like
For the first time, fear.
The same thing I had heard in his voice over Rachel’s phone the night everything began.
