Chapter 9 - The Sentence
It took the state prosecutors less than three months to upgrade the charges.
With the journals from the attic, the attempted bribery recording, and Eleanor's public breakdown in court, the district attorney officially reopened the investigation into Trevor’s death. Her medical records from his youth were subpoenaed, revealing a pattern of doctor-shopping and falsified symptoms that painted a textbook picture of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Eleanor did not go to trial for murder.
Given her age and her deteriorating psychological state, her legal team negotiated a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment, tampering with consumer products, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
She was sentenced to fifteen years in a secure psychiatric prison facility. She would spend the rest of her life behind high walls, monitored by guards, with no audience to applaud her tragedy.
The day she was transported, I went to the prison waiting room. I didn't want to speak to her. I just wanted to see her in the orange jumpsuit, stripped of her designer clothes, her pearls, and her power.
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She looked at me through the reinforced glass partition. She didn't pick up the phone to speak. She just stared at me, her eyes empty, realizing that her little "second-in-command" had finally finished the job.
I stood up, turned my back on her, and walked out into the bright, warm Texas sunshine.
