Chapter 7 - The Story He Swore Was True
"Unstable?" I said. "He watched his mother hit me."
Margot read the petition in silence. It described me as volatile, secretive, and financially dependent on Daniel. It also claimed I'd made a threatening phone call to an influential relative to intimidate the Harrington family.
My father. The relative was my father.
"They are trying to make you look dangerous," Margot said. "That doesn't make their story true. We will respond with the facts."
I wanted to call Daniel and scream. Instead I wrote down every word I remembered from Christmas dinner, including who sat where. Margot asked me to identify neutral witnesses. Rosa. The paramedics. Anyone who had not grown up believing Linda could do no wrong.
My phone rang again.
Daniel spoke before I could say hello. "I didn't want it to get this far."
"Then why did you file that?"
"My lawyer said we needed to protect my access to Emma."
"By lying about me?"
"You took her away."
"Your mother hit me while she was watching."
"Mom has apologized."
"To whom?"
Silence.
"Daniel, did you know about the fake signature?"
"We can discuss that after you come home."
"You really think those things belong in the same sentence?"
His voice sharpened. "My family's business supports eighty employees, Sarah. You have no idea what your father's people are threatening to do."
"I know what you let your mother do."
Emma appeared beside me, clutching her stuffed rabbit. I ended the call.
That night she asked if Daddy was angry with her for crying.
"No," I told her. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"Grandma said crying makes Daddy sad."
I held her until she fell asleep, then sat in the dark with the petition on my phone.
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At the bottom was Daniel's sworn statement that I had attempted to strike Linda first.
He had signed it under penalty of perjury.
