So, when Aly took the stand again, she just thought of that.That contentious time with Sandy under the Bennet roof.How she hadn’t understood it, or liked it, but she had worked so hard toaccept it.Forhim.
Because she’d loved him like a father, believed him and his goodness.But he’d never compromised for her—or his sons.He’d never listened or accepted or tried to do anything but get his own way and make anyone who stood in that way the enemy.
She could look back now, knowing all she’d learned in these past six months, and finally fully accept everything he’d done had been a horrible man’s way of manipulating a girl who’d been orphaned.
So she thought of the girl she’d been.ThepawnBen had made her.And she fought for that girl.
Cal wanted her to look at Ben as much if not more than the jury or the lawyer, so Aly did right now, and let her anger over what he’d done show.
“Ms.Wainwright, as previously established, you lived in the same household as the accused since you were twelve years old?”Mr.Vanderbilt asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Which means you observed Mr.Bennet’s relationship with both Marie Bennet, and later, Sandy McCoy.”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell us about Mr.Bennet’s relationship with Sandy McCoy?”
Mr.Wheeler tried to mount an objection, but Mr.Vanderbilt easily talked the judge into overruling it.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind,” Aly answered once directed to.“They hadn’t been dating more than a few months when Sandy was basically living with us at the Bennet house.Landon and I both asked Ben not to have her move in, since they were very… volatile together.”
“Can you explain what you mean by volatile?”
Aly looked at Ben.“They liked to fight.Sandy was nothing like Marie.She was unpredictable.Young and dramatic.She purposefully pushed Ben’s buttons, and he seemed to… enjoy that, for whatever reason.”
Ben was whispering furiously to his lawyer, clearly angry.Aly flicked a gaze to Cal, who wasn’t smiling, but she could tell he was pleased.
“Ben enjoyed that kind of friction.He didn’t become violent in retaliation to it.And he ignored each and every one of the family’s concerns or objections, becausehewas enjoying it.”
“Was that how you would characterize his marriage with Marie Bennet?”Mr.Vanderbilt asked.
“Not at all.Marie did everything she could to appease Ben.We—that is me and his biological children in the house—were constantly made aware of Ben’s moods, and instructed to do things that would steady them.Sandy did everything she could to agitate him, to exacerbatehismoods.Marie did everything to soothe them.”
Mr.Vanderbilt asked her a few more questions about specific incidents.Aly could see Ben’s fury mount, but she realized that was because she’d beentrainedto see that.The way he held his jaw tight, the chin up.He could smile or pout or whatever, but Marie had given her the tools to see the fury under it.So they could avoid his outbursts.
Aly had never realized that until now.It was shocking and terrible to see all she’d been taught and done withoutrealizingthe real danger underneath it all.
Not that she could blame Marie.Marie had been trying to protect them.
Benjamin Bennet was the monster here.
Maybe as a child the right thing had been to appease him, but she wasn’t a defenseless girl any longer.It was time to fight the monster.
When Mr.Wheeler came to cross-examine her, she couldn’t focus on Marie or how sad it made her to know what victims they’d all been.She had to focus onBen.
She wouldn’t be his victim anymore.
“Ms.Wainwright, you were a child when Marie Bennet died,” Mr.Wheeler said.“Correct?”he added when it looked like Mr.Vanderbilt was going to lodge an objection.
“I was fifteen years old,” Aly corrected him.
“Still awful young to understand the complexities of an adult relationship, don’t you think?”
“For the three years prior to her murder, I had been under the care of Marie and Benjamin Bennet after my father died.I was in that house with both women.Regardless of my age, I can tell you what I saw at both times.”
“And either time, did you ever see Benjamin Bennet physically harm, or threaten to physically harm, either woman?”
