Chapter 9 - The Story Clara Told
Clara had reported that Emma attacked her during the shower and that Andrew was teaching his daughter to behave violently.
She claimed Zoe invented her account after being fired.
"Was Zoe fired?" the worker, Simone Reed, asked Andrew.
"No. She left because she was threatened."
"Do you have documentation?"
"Yes. I can send it through my attorney."
Simone interviewed people separately and kept her tone matter-of-fact.
She did not promise Andrew that a video would solve everything.
She asked about routines at home, discipline, access to the kitchen, and whether Emma was safe that night.
"She's with me at her aunt's," Andrew said.
"We're cooperating with the assessment."
When Simone asked about the slap, he swallowed hard.
"I struck Clara once. I regret it. I have never hit her before, and I am getting help so I don't respond to danger that way again."
"What are you doing differently?"
"I'm not entering arguments alone. We're communicating in writing. I've started individual counseling."
After the interview, Emma sat beside her father under a maple tree in Tessa's yard.
She asked if she could still call the house "home" if she didn't sleep there.
"Of course," Andrew said.
"Home isn't something a grown-up can take from you because of one bad day."
"Clara says the baby needs the sunshine room."
"Then we can make a different sunny room. You don't have to disappear to make space for your brother."
That evening Judith sent a formal letter through counsel demanding that Zoe retract her statement or face a defamation lawsuit.
Maya read the letter aloud and then turned to its last page.
"This isn't just about Zoe," she said.
May you like
"They attached a financial proposal. Clara wants Andrew to pay for Pine Crest as part of a separation agreement."
At the bottom of the proposal was a sentence that made Andrew's hands go cold: Emma's current bedroom would be converted into the new nursery immediately upon her enrollment.
