Chapter 10 - The Words She Was Made to Say
Shah explained that investigators had found the phone hidden inside a box of winter decorations. I did not touch the evidence or ask to hear recordings Lily might find upsetting.
The detective had only one question for me: had I ever received a message from Lily claiming she didn't want to visit me?
I remembered one. "I hate Grandma," it said, followed by a heart emoji. Ethan told me Lily was having a phase. I had cried over it for a week.
"The message was drafted on this phone," Shah said. "It was sent through an account Vanessa controlled."
My anger had nowhere to go. I stood at the counter gripping an empty glass until the detective gently asked me to sit.
Other files showed Vanessa prompting Lily to repeat sentences about being unsafe around adults. Some were paired with misleading captions. Investigators suspected the videos were intended to support false reports to a placement provider and gain access to the funds in Lily's account.
Ethan had appeared in several recordings. In one, he told Vanessa to stop frightening Lily. In another, filmed a few days later, he told Lily to apologize for making Vanessa angry. His willingness to notice came and went according to how inconvenient the truth felt.
Carla prepared me for a difficult hearing. "Protecting Lily doesn't mean every adult on our side acted perfectly," she warned. "The court will hear that you struck Vanessa. We need to be honest about it."
"I will be," I said.
That afternoon Paige's lawyer sent a letter claiming all services had been provided appropriately. Attached was a list of home visits signed by someone identified as L. Parker, licensed clinical social worker.
Carla called the state licensing office. There was a social worker by that name, but she had died the previous year.
"They forged a dead woman's signature," Carla said.
I looked at the dates. The supposed home visits continued right through Christmas week.
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The last line of the document was a recommendation for Lily's immediate removal. Beneath it was a blank space titled PARENTAL CONSENT.
And someone had already filled that space with Ethan's signature.
