Page 125 of Backup Plan

“Yes.”

“Is that your signature?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell the court your understanding of the document when you signed it?”

“I believed the papers I was signing had something to do with taxes,” Archer says.

“Did you know you were taking ownership of a company?”

“No.”

“So you’re saying your father misled you?”

“Objection!” Paul, Dad’s lawyer, shouts. “Argumentative.”

“Sustained,” the judge says. “Careful, counsel.”

The prosecuting attorney changes his approach. “Take us through what happened when he asked you to sign the paperwork.”

Archer glances at our father, seated there in front with his team of lawyers, and then he tells the truth as he knows it. “He called me and said he had some papers for me to sign. Said it was for tax purposes. He was lining things up before my mother died, and he wanted to reconcile with me. I glanced at it, and it was a bunch of legal jargon, so I signed it and sent it back.”

“You signed it without fully reading and understanding what you were signing?” the lawyer asks.

“Yes, sir.”

“When you signed this document, you had no knowledge that your father was putting this operation in your name?”

“That is correct.”

They ask a few follow-up questions, and they end with, “No further questions, Your Honor.”

The judge turns to Paul. “Counsel?”

My heart races for Archer. They’re going to decimate him. They’re going to try to plant doubt with the jury by saying it’s his name on the paper, so he’s the one behind the operation, and it’s all because Archer didn’t pay enough attention to read what he was signing.

It’s textbook defense to create reasonable doubt.

And that’s why I’m shocked to my core when Paul says, “No questions, Your Honor.”

The judge turns to Archer. “You may step down.” He turns to the prosecution. “You may call the next witness.”

I reach over and grab Penny’s hand, and I realize mine are trembling. I’m glad she’s here. I’m nervous about getting called up, but I feel like I can do this with her here—and with the rest of my family here.

On the one hand, he’s my father. I don’t want him to go away for this. But on the other…he should pay for his crimes.

It’s such a weird mental space to be in. I hate what he did, but he’s my dad. I still love the guy, and maybe he’s been punished enough after losing his wife and now losing most of his children to what he did.

I haven’t been here for him during the trial the way I should have been. I’ve been too caught up in my own shit, though to be fair, a lot of time was spent traveling back and forth to San Diego.

“The state calls Maverick Jennings to the stand.”

He glances at Everleigh, and she squeezes his hand before he makes his way to the front. The prosecution asks him several questions establishing who he is and what happened the night our father’s underground casino in Vegas was raided, and he gives the truth as he knows it.

The judge asks the prosecuting attorney to be mindful that the rest of the Bradley family has scheduling conflicts and will not be able to return to the court for testimony, but the next witness called is one of Dad’s former employees.

The only one of the Bradley siblings called up was Archer.