Page 95 of Long Lost Winter

Aly wouldn’t wilt, even though the question made her want to.But Cal had said it wasn’t about proving anything.

It was about provoking Ben.

“No, I did not,” Aly said.

“No further questions then,” Wheeler said.

Aly glanced at Ben expecting something smug, or maybe more acting for the jury.

Instead, there was a sneer on his face.

*

When Sam wascalled to the stand again, she was ready.Eager, even.Piss Benjamin Bennet off?Well, it was the dream of a lifetime.

When she’d first testified, she’d done it with the weight of those fifteen years of trying to find the truth.She’d done it for her father—the man he’d been before the wrongful verdict had broken him.She’d done it for the girl she’d been and everything Ben’s lies had taken away from her.She had done it with years of regret that could never be fixed hanging off of her.

Today, she was taking the stand for Nate.For Cal, Landon, and Aly.For Marie Bennet, and everything she’d tried to do to save her sons.Today, this wasn’t about proving herself right.

It was about justice.

Because she happened to think Cal was right.

Benjamin Bennet flat out hated anyone proving him to be the bad guy, but more than that, he really hated it when it was a woman.Hated it enough that all those careful, polished manipulations that had kept him out of jail for over a decade, that had kept his family traumatized and under his thumb for longer, might just crumble.

God, she hoped.

Case in point, she watched as he tried to arrange his expression into something other than a sneer.He fidgeted in his seat.Straightened his shoulders, raised his chin.

But he couldn’t quite maintain his downcast feigned guilt when he looked at her.No, there was nothing but pure, unadulterated hate.

Because she’d never believed his mask, his fake persona.No, from the moment her father had been arrested, she had blamed Ben, because she had seen what he’d done to Nate.She’dknown.And, she might have been the only one outside the Bennets who knew, and he might have been able to use that against a fifteen-year-old girl for all this time.

But not today.

Because she wasn’t alone anymore.

So she smiled at him.She still had a perfect memory of finding Nate, bruised and bloody, that night.She could see everything Benjamin Bennet had inflicted on him with fists.

Now Sam would try to return the favor with words.

“Can you tell us about your experience with the man named Bowman Lake who hired you for a job through your private investigation company, Ms.Price?”

Sam went through it all, in minute detail.Bo’s arrival to his departure.Vanderbilt brought things into evidence from Honor’s Edge that supported everything she said.

Including Bo’s notebook.Maybe he was the coward Nate had always thought.She couldn’t argue that point now.

But he’d left a few things behind, hadn’t he?

As Cal had said,Fuck Bo Lake.

They didn’t need his DNA.They had themselves.

Sam recounted the evening with Glenda.Everything Jill had read—and would read to the court if needed.Sam recounted Bo’s response to these things.His involvement with a private investigator connected to Mr.Wheeler.Mr.Wheeler had lodged some objections, and not everything would get through, but enough.

Enough.

“Ms.Price.For fifteen years you tried to convince anyone who would listen that Benjamin Bennet was the murderer of Marie Bennet.No one listened.Why should they listen now?”