Chapter 5 - The Hearing Nobody Mentioned
“Guardianship of whom?” Daniel demanded when Tessa laid the card on the hospital cafeteria table.
“That's what I'd like to know,” Tessa replied.
Emily sat across from him, a fresh medical report in her bag. Her cheek had begun turning purple. Daniel looked at it and could not hold her eyes.
“I was wrong,” he said. “I struck you. I have no excuse.”
“Then don't make one.”
Tessa slid him a printout from the county court's public docket. Patricia Whitmore had filed a petition for temporary control over Sophie's trust and medical decisions, alleging that Daniel was emotionally unstable following Leah's death.
Daniel read the line twice. “She never told me.”
“There's a signed statement attached,” Tessa said. “Your name is on it.”
“I didn't sign anything like this.”
Emily leaned forward. “How much money is in Sophie's trust?”
Daniel hesitated. “Leah's father left twenty-four million dollars in managed assets. Sophie can't touch it until she's older. The funds are supposed to cover her needs and education.”
“Who manages it now?”
“I do, with an independent trustee. My mother is the named successor only if I'm legally unable.”
The pieces moved into place with a terrible click. Patricia had not merely accused Emily. She had arranged for Daniel to look violent in front of witnesses, while claiming that he could not protect his daughter.
“Why would she put Sophie at risk?” Daniel asked.
“I don't know,” Emily said. “But she stood at the top of that hill with the brake released.”
He looked at the petition again. The date at the bottom was eleven days before the fall.
Tessa touched the page. “A petition prepared in advance doesn't prove she pushed the stroller. But it means she was planning for a crisis.”
Daniel's phone lit with a message from Patricia: DON'T LET THE GIRL TALK TO EMILY AGAIN.
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Then another arrived, addressed to the family group chat.
A photograph showed Daniel's hand raised above Emily's face, captioned: THIS IS WHY SOPHIE NEEDS ME.
