Chapter 4: The Evidence
The evidence was undeniable.
The nursery camera had recorded everything in high definition: Gero removing the belt, the fifty lashes, Beate curled on the floor protecting her belly, Gero hanging the belt back neatly and answering his phone as if nothing had happened.
The detective showed the video to Gero in the interrogation room.
Gero watched it without expression.
Then he smiled.
“It was discipline,” he said. “A wife needs to learn.”
Brenner leaned forward. “You hit your pregnant wife fifty times with a belt because dinner was late.”
Gero shrugged. “She knows the rules.”
The lawyer beside him tried to stop him from speaking.
Gero ignored him.
Thomas Brand watched the interrogation from the other side of the glass, fists clenched.
He had seen men like Gero in the army — men who broke others and called it strength.
This time, the man had broken his daughter.
Thomas turned to the detective.
“I want him charged with everything possible.”
Brenner nodded. “We will.”
The evidence was sent to the prosecutor that night.
Gero Müller was charged with aggravated assault on a pregnant woman, attempted harm to an unborn child, and domestic violence.
He spent the night in a cell.
Beate slept in her childhood bed for the first time in years.
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The evidence had spoken.
Now the court would decide what it meant.
