Chapter 5
Corinne did not plead guilty immediately.
Wyatt expected her to.
He had seen the messages.
The estate notes.
The insurance.
The bait plan.
The two witnesses.
The throw.
What was there left to contest?
A great deal, apparently.
Intent toward Wyatt.
Degree of conspiracy with Adrian.
Whether the sedative bottle was meant to incapacitate or merely calm him.
Whether Corinne had agreed to Adrian’s Phase Two or only failed to stop it.
Whether attempted murder of Maisie was premeditated before the hike or formed at the cliff after the wolf encounter failed.
Law cared about sequence.
Wyatt had started to understand why.
The prosecutor, Elena Park, met him with Maya Sloan.
She said:
“Your certainty about what happened to Maisie is supported by strong evidence.”
Good.
“Your certainty about every part of the larger plan is not identical.”
Wyatt nodded.
He hated.
Accepted.
Corinne’s defense strategy emerged.
She admitted throwing Maisie.
She would not call it an accident.
That was something.
But her lawyers argued she had been under severe psychological pressure from Adrian, suffered untreated postpartum depression and anxiety, and had intended to stage a scare until moments before the throw.
The state disagreed.
Messages and searches suggested death planning well before.
A psychiatric evaluation found depression and anxiety.
No psychosis.
No evidence she could not understand wrongfulness.
No evidence that postpartum illness itself compelled violence.
That distinction mattered.
Wyatt did not want the case teaching people that depressed mothers were dangerous.
Most were not.
Corinne was responsible for Corinne.
Then Adrian’s defense.
He said Corinne was mastermind.
He was a financially desperate man who helped with insurance and bait but never believed she would actually kill Maisie.
The prosecutor showed him:
Use the drop.
Adrian claimed it meant “use the overlook as a place to stage panic and reconsider.”
Nobody believed that phrase easily.
But trials are not belief contests.
Evidence.
Then:
No body, no payout.
Adrian said dark humor.
Then Phase Two.
He claimed it was a fictional “risk analysis” document exploring what would happen if Wyatt died accidentally.
Why a map?
Why sedative?
Why notes?
He had answers.
Bad ones.
Still answers.
Then one new piece of evidence changed leverage.
Corinne’s smartwatch.
She had forgotten it synced health and voice assistant data.
Not a full recording.
A short accidental audio snippet captured when her sleeve activated voice memo near the cliff.
Wyatt listened once.
Never again.
Corinne breathing.
Maisie crying.
Wyatt shouting in distance.
Corinne whispering:
“I’m sorry.”
Then Adrian’s voice through earbud? Maybe he was on phone. Yes. A faint voice over connected earbud:
Do it now.
Corinne:
Shut up.
Adrian:
Now, Corinne.
Then wind.
Wyatt screaming.
That put Adrian in her ear at the moment.
Police recovered call record.
Adrian was on satellite call from fire lookout.
He watched part of route through optics.
Did he see throw?
He claimed no.
But he knew timing.
Corinne had an earpiece under hat.
Wyatt had not noticed.
Then after Maisie fell:
Adrian:
Move to fallback.
Corinne:
She’s alive.
Adrian:
What?
Corinne:
Someone caught her.
Call ended.
There.
Adrian learned immediately.
He began packing fire lookout.
That explained arrest.
The audio strengthened conspiracy.
It also complicated Corinne.
She was pressured in real time.
But she still said “shut up,” then acted.
Could she have walked away?
Yes.
Could she have handed Maisie to Wyatt?
Yes.
Could she have called police and exposed Adrian?
Yes.
Pressure is not physical force.
Then Corinne requested a meeting with prosecutors.
Not with Wyatt.
Good.
She offered full cooperation against Adrian in exchange for negotiated plea.
The state did not promise outcome first.
She gave proffer.
Wyatt received summary later.
Corinne said affair began during pregnancy.
Why?
She felt invisible.
Wyatt worked constantly.
Adrian listened.
Simple.
Not excuse.
She said after Maisie was born, she loved her and also felt trapped.
Sleep deprivation.
Body changes.
Money dependence.
Fear of divorce.
Then Wyatt consulted lawyer after parked-car incident.
Adrian told her:
“He will take Maisie and make everyone believe you are unstable.”
Corinne panicked.
Did Adrian know because he hacked? No.
Corinne had read Wyatt’s email on shared tablet.
There.
No mysterious source.
She saw appointment confirmation.
Then she sent screenshot to Adrian.
He built fear.
Next:
estate documents.
Corinne herself photographed Wyatt’s will from home safe.
No coercion.
She wanted to know divorce consequences.
Adrian analyzed.
Found death sequence.
He said:
“There’s a way you don’t lose.”
Corinne claimed she thought he meant leverage.
Then conversation darkened.
She admitted she asked:
“What if Maisie died in an accident?”
She cried during proffer.
Still said.
Then Adrian built insurance idea.
Corinne applied.
She said each step felt theoretical until it did not.
That phrase angered Wyatt.
Theoretical documents become real when filed.
Theoretical bait becomes real when wolf comes.
Theoretical murder becomes real when arms open.
Then Phase Two.
Corinne insisted she did not want Wyatt dead.
When she saw file, she called Adrian insane.
True.
Then she stayed.
Why?
“If I backed out, he had everything.”
Messages.
Insurance.
Affair.
Fraud? What fraud already? She had forged/withheld. He could expose.
Blackmail.
Did Adrian threaten?
Not explicit.
He said:
“You’re in this whether you finish or not.”
That is coercive pressure.
Still, Corinne could go to authorities.
She did not.
Then the day.
She planned to let wolf scare.
Did she expect wolf kill Maisie?
“Yes.”
The prosecutor asked:
“Were you prepared to allow that?”
Corinne said:
“Yes.”
Then wolf dragged Maisie.
For a second Corinne panicked and rescued her.
That mattered.
The maternal action was real.
Then Adrian in ear:
Do it now.
Wyatt approaching.
Corinne believed if she handed Maisie to Wyatt, everything would be exposed because bait attack would lead to questions?
Maybe not.
But she felt plan collapsing.
She threw.
Why?
Her answer:
“Because I had already crossed so many lines that going back felt impossible.”
There.
Escalation.
Sunk cost as murder.
Not insanity.
Then she lied immediately.
The wolf knocked her.
Why?
“I wanted one more chance for it to look accidental.”
Then backpack.
She tried to reach because passports and phones.
Escape branch.
Then Luis.
She said:
“I hated him the moment he said he saw me.”
Wyatt read and felt cold.
Luis had saved Maisie and truth.
Corinne hated him for both.
Then plea discussions.
Attempted murder.
Conspiracy to commit attempted murder of Wyatt.
Insurance fraud.
Wildlife offenses linked to baiting? Adrian placed, Corinne conspired.
Other charges.
She agreed to plead to attempted murder of Maisie and conspiracy related to Wyatt, plus fraud counts.
In exchange, no trial against her and testimony against Adrian.
Sentencing after Adrian trial.
Wyatt felt torn.
A plea meant no defense attacking him.
No months of testimony.
But lower sentence maybe.
Maya said:
“You do not have to transform punishment into proof of love for Maisie.”
Good.
He wrote victim statement later.
No sentence request yet.
Then Luis testified before grand jury and later pretrial.
Defense tried:
Could you have misperceived Corinne’s movement due angle?
“I could be wrong about some distances.”
Could the baby have slipped?
“No.”
How can you be sure?
“Because I saw her hands move forward before release.”
Could wolf have caused?
“No. It was moving away.”
Calm.
No hero speech.
Then wildlife biologist Erin Cole testified about bait.
Defense asked whether wolves are unpredictable.
“Yes.”
Could wolf independently approach without bait?
“Yes.”
Could bait guarantee attack?
“No.”
Good.
No overclaim.
Then:
“Can you say this exact wolf would not have approached without bait?”
“No.”
Again.
Evidence does not need absolute.
Bait increased likelihood.
It was intentionally placed.
The wolf remained wild.
Then Northcrest records.
They cooperated.
No evidence they knew deaths planned.
They had been reckless in accepting Adrian’s unauthorized “family transition” pitch without direct verification.
Company instituted policy requiring seller authorization.
Civil issue.
Not criminal conspiracy.
Wyatt felt relief.
Not because he liked Northcrest.
Because every additional villain would make story easier and less true.
Sometimes crime networks are small.
Harm spreads anyway.
Then Adrian’s debt creditors.
One had threatened lawsuit Friday.
He needed liquidity.
The Northcrest sale would pay him a “transaction success fee” of 4.5 million under a forged advisory agreement Corinne signed on behalf of a Mercer entity she did not control.
Forgery.
Fraud.
Money.
Then Corinne expected:
life insurance.
claim recovery.
spousal inheritance.
company control.
Not one motive.
A package.
Freedom in her mind looked like money without Wyatt, motherhood, or consequences.
Then Wyatt found an old text from Corinne on his own phone.
Six months before.
Maisie was two weeks old.
Corinne:
I miss being a person.
Wyatt:
You are a person.
Corinne:
That’s not what I mean.
Wyatt:
We’re both tired. Sleep when she sleeps.
Wyatt stared at his reply.
Sleep when she sleeps.
A cliché.
Dismissive.
He had failed to hear.
Did that cause crime?
No.
Could he have been a better husband?
Yes.
Both.
He saved screenshot not as evidence against himself.
As reminder.
People can contribute to unhappy marriages without contributing to murder.
That boundary mattered.
He would not make himself responsible for Corinne’s choices.
He would also not make those choices erase every place he had failed her before.
Then Maisie laughed for the first time after hospital.
A real laugh.
At a ceiling fan.
Wyatt laughed too.
No court.
No will.
No wolf.
For ten seconds, the world narrowed to a baby finding spinning blades hilarious.
Wyatt thought:
This is the person all those documents called M.
M first.
M event.
M claim.
A letter.
A variable.
He looked at her.
“Your name is Maisie.”
She laughed again.
May you like
Good.
He would keep saying the whole name until the documents felt ashamed.
