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Pattinson smoothed the front of his jacket. "Fine. Facts. Your fa—Excuse me. Jon Roth made sure you saw a variety of specialists in the hopes of curing your handicap. He sent you to one of the best schools in the region. He encouraged you to greatness, which you apparently have achieved. He left you wanting for nothing. And now, you would like this jury to believe him to be what—Abusive? Violent? Capable of harming his children?"
"He left me with barely any means to communicate until I was five years old, when he sent me to Bridlethorpe because it was the only school willing to take a pupil so young in exchange for his sizable contribution. I was left there except for the vacation breaks when he was required to allow me to come home. He encouraged me by telling me I would be a constant burden and a useless drain on society. And the back of his hand encouraged me to take what I had to from him only as long as I had to."
Pattinson sighed and returned to his table, tossing a pen down on his legal pad. "Your Honor, I have no further questions for this witness. I have not yet heard anything relevant, and nothing more than the angry diatribes of a disgruntled son."
The judge turned his focus to D.A. Whitman. "Do you have any further questions, Counsel?"
"Just a couple, Your Honor." She walked around the table and approached Benjamin again. "Benjamin, I'm not going to ask you to rehash a difficult childhood, but I do have some questions for you."
Benjamin nodded, his gaze shifting past D.A. Whitman to connect briefly with Jewell's.
"Benjamin, how old were you when you graduated high school?"
"Sixteen."
"So, you skipped a few grades."
He shifted, smoothing his tie. "I took a very heavy class workload, essentially completing four grades in two years."
"What was your GPA when you graduated?"
"3.96."
"Impressive. So, after graduating at sixteen, you went on to college."
"Yes, Harvard."
"How did you pay for your education?"
"Full scholarship to Harvard School of Business."
Whitman turned and walked to the jury as he answered her questions, confirming the lengthy list of accomplishments he achieved before the age of twenty-four. Some members of the jury shifted in their chairs, some looking surprised and others impressed. Jewell hadn't thought to look at the panel of individuals when Benjamin spoke of his childhood. The difference in reactions might have been an interesting gauge for their response.
"Final question for you, Benjamin," she said, turning back to him. "I apologize if these questions seem crass. Could you please confirm for the court…are you completely deaf?"
"Yes."
"You have been since birth." He confirmed with a nod. "How did you communicate with your family when you were a child?"
"I don't recall the earliest years, but I had a rudimentary ASL vocabulary until I was three or four years old. My nanny knew sign language, though not strictly ASL, and through her, my vocabulary expanded. I didn't communicate with anyone but her until I was able to read lips and speak."
"Learning to speak with total hearing loss is a massive challenge, and one not all hearing impaired persons choose to tackle. Why did you, Mr. Roth?"
"A dyslexic learns to read and goes on to become a teacher. A paraplegic uses a wheelchair and wins a marathon. A blind man learns to program computers. My deafness is an element of my life, but it is not the definition of my life. I wanted to succeed in business. To do that, I learned the nature of global markets, I studied trends and predictions, and I learned to communicate with my peers."
"Part of learning to speak is learning to read lips, is that correct?" He nodded again in answer to her question. "At what age did Jon Roth enroll you in speech therapy?"
"He didn't," Benjamin answered, his gaze shifting back to her. "Bridlethorpe Academy offered the option to me. Once I hit junior high level, I began to seek speech therapy options outside the school. By the time I graduated, I communicated in the classroom almost completely through lip reading and speech."
"You did this. Not Jon Roth. Why do you think that is?"
"The only thing worse than hatred is indifference."
Finally, the questions were over and Benjamin was dismissed from the stand. He stood, smoothed his shirt and tie, and stepped down, crossing the space in front of the judge's bench to the rows of seating behind the counsel tables. His stone face was a mask of control, nothing but the pinch beside his eyes giving anything away to anyone who might look. Except for Jewell. She watched him every step, clenching her hands in her lap. Her heart hurt and her chest ached. He raised his head and his gaze connected with her as he walked down the aisle. He stopped at the end of the row he had sat in before the trial began, and Jewell held her breath.
Then he took the two final steps needed to bring him to her row, never breaking their eye contact. Jewell had to lean back and tip her chin to look up at him. He stood there for what felt like an eternity before turning and taking the seat beside her. Jewell reached for his hand, and he laced his fingers through hers, pulling their joined hands into his lap so he could enfold her hand between both of his. He dropped his head forward, his eyes closed tight and his jaw clenched so tightly that small muscles jerked in front of his ear. One hand held hers while the palm of the other caressed a constant rhythm across the back of her fingers and knuckles, an assurance perhaps that she was there.
The prosecution rested and both offered their final arguments, which continued for another three hours. The prosecution rehashed every piece of evidence, including Victoria's testimony taken minutes after she woke and before she spoke to anyone in the family. Or with Dillon. They pointed out how every detail of her testimony matched the details provided by Dillon throughout his entire interrogation. Character witnesses. Expert testimonies. Forensic evidence that stood in direct conflict with Jon Roth's statements. They droned on for nearly two hours. Then the defense did the same, shooting down every piece of evidence brought up by the prosecution. They treated every element as a waste of time, playing the confidence card, attempting to convince the jury that to even consider Jon Roth guilty of such a crime would be ridiculous. They placed incompetence on the police force who released Dillon once their suspicion switched to Jon Roth—who was clearly innocent.
