Chapter 18 — The Verdict

The federal proceedings concluded some months later.

Phoebe Vance kept her promise.

She delivered clear, unflinching, devastating testimony under oath, against her own father and her own brother, in open court.

Facing a mountain of forensic paper and internal communications that no defense could climb, Flynn Vance pled guilty to corporate fraud and embezzlement, and was sentenced to six years in a federal facility.

Arthur Vance — the untouchable patriarch, the man who owned the county — was convicted of felony obstruction of justice and civil conspiracy, and ordered to pay massive financial restitution to Mabel for the deliberate destruction of her professional life.