GOLDWING (ing version)

chapter 55

Paris, Palace of Justice.

5th October.

VICTORIA'S POV

"Your Honour, Presiding Judge, my dear colleagues in the defence, the excellent court staff, the victims' relatives, the defendant's relatives, and finally the jurors drawn by lot, I am here today first to defend the case of the victim Angelina David. On the evening of 18 February 2024 at 02:43, Victoria de Angelis, Angelina's mom, who was 25 weeks pregnant, had severe abdominal pain. Accompanied by her partner Damiano David, Angelina's father, she was diagnosed with foetal distress due to the amount of amniotic fluid in her uterus. She underwent a caesarean section at 8:30am the same day, with clear signs of fetal distress and irregular heartbeat, which was finalised at 15:02 after the birth of Angelina Grace de Angelis David, and bleeding in the abdomen and connecting ducts was reported, resulting from Disseminated Vascular Coagulation for unknown causes. Angel was diagnosed 1 week after birth with Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome and 2 days later, she died of a cardiac arrest. The defendant Corinne Leándre was responsible for this baby, as well as many others," the prosecutor introduced.

She went on to introduce Ambre, Léna, Aaron, Adele, Hans, Ingrid, Arthur and the twins Ezra and Ophelia. We knew all their names, it was for them that we were there together. I saw tears coming out of Dam's eyes when they talked about our daughter. I noticed that his gaze was fixed on the two rings he had on his fingers: A and H. Angel and Harper, or Harper Aria. He was wearing a cream button-down shirt and black trousers, matching me unintentionally, who was wearing an identical but open shirt with a knitted jumper inside. The sparkle of my wedding ring also reminded me why I had to be stronger. Because I had support, because I loved him despite everything.

It was a full day of pressure. The first of 3 days of trial were over. The introduction of the other cases was heartbreaking, seeing people who were memories of our past in front of us years later, torn to shreds. I am eternally grateful to Claire for getting hold of me and taking the initiative to have publicised this investigation. It had all started with some inconsistencies in her twins' health records when she moved to Germany. A while later, records of neonatal examinations on Ezra had never been recorded in his health file. It was only a matter of time before they picked up the records of babies in the NICU within the same time frame and noticed that the same abnormalities were apparent in other babies. That's why we were called to testify, to connect the dots and see what was wrong, why it was only in cases of special babies that inconsistencies happened.

That day destroyed us. Hearing Angel's story retold by someone else still seemed very shocking. The fear that sooner or later someone would find out was great. Our family and friends were by our side, they stayed with us for hours on FaceTime. We spoke to other parents who had experiences like ours of having their children in intensive care. We met Claire's twins who were already 4 years old, and were the cutest thing in the world. As infants, they had Foetal Transfusion Syndrome, where Ezra had to fight for his life for weeks. Adele and Arthur, the neurodivergent children. Ingrid, with a congenital heart deformation. Léna, the girl who had a foetal deformation at the end of her back and was operated on soon after birth. These were the children who were still in this world. 

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Paris, 8th October.

The sound of my high heels could be heard on the pavement of the steps of the Palace of Justice, along with the noise that Harper's little feet made. Her two small hands were occupied by one of mine and one of Dam's, who was getting closer to her every day. We met up with other parents, who also brought their children, who would be looked after during the trial, while Harp had her nanny. She was wearing a long-sleeved lilac dress with her hair tied in two parts to give her sister strength. Dam and I varied from the outfit of three days earlier to a blazer and baggy jeans. We were officially labelled the most stylish parents, the ones who were younger and looked like they came from the last century. Every day, our relationship gained the complicity it had lost in recent times. He talked a lot about Harper, asked a lot of questions about her, about her preferences, about everything he had lost. Even though my sister told me not to take him back without apologising, he seemed to have already done that, for all that he was doing, to be resuming the role he had lost. He told me at almost no point about his sobriety, just told me to stay on his meds.