Three weeks later, the atmosphere inside the family courtroom was suffocating and tense.
Arthur Vance: Your Honor, the evidence against Mrs. Clara Hayes is overwhelmingly clear. We have multiple sworn affidavits regarding her emotional instability.
Judge Ellison: Mr. Vance, the court is currently reviewing your client’s petition for a permanent restraining order and sole custody.
Richard: Your Honor, if I may speak? I live every single day with the nightmare of catching my baby mid-air. My wife intentionally dropped her!
Judge Ellison: Restrain yourself, Mr. Hayes. Your council will speak for you.
Clara sat next to her public defense attorney, holding her head high, dressed in a simple, modest dark blue suit.
Clara’s Lawyer: Your Honor, my client maintains that the balcony structural integrity was tampered with prior to the incident.
Arthur Vance: Tampered with? That is a ludicrous claim made by a desperate mother facing the loss of her marital fortune and trust fund rights!
Richard: She just wants my family estate! She tried to sabotage my reputation!
Judge Ellison: Order in this court! Mrs. Hayes, do you have any physical evidence to support this claim of structural tampering?
Clara stood up from the defense table, looking directly at Richard, whose smug smile slightly faded.
Clara: Yes, Your Honor. I do. I submit Exhibit A—the raw security footage from the upper residential corridor recorded at two-fifteen AM on the morning of the event.
Arthur Vance: Objection! The home system was reported corrupted by my client weeks ago!
Clara: Corrupted on the local monitor, perhaps. But not on the secure cloud partition that I downloaded before leaving the property.
The court bailiff took the flash drive from Clara’s lawyer and inserted it into the evidence monitor facing the judge’s bench.
Judge Ellison: Let the record show we are playing video file timestamped August fourteenth, two-fifteen AM.
The screen flickered to life, showing clear night-vision footage of Richard sawing through the banister pins with a mini oscillating tool.
Judge Ellison: Is that... Mr. Hayes in the video?
Richard: That’s... that’s a deepfake! She fabricated that video using AI software!
Clara: The digital metadata and cryptographic signature were verified yesterday by the state forensic cybersecurity unit, Your Honor.
Judge Ellison: Quiet down, Mr. Hayes! Mr. Vance, explain this immediately!
Arthur Vance: Your Honor... I... I was not made aware of this video recording by my client.
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