Chapter 12 - Not Her Son to Bargain With
Daniel stared at the message until Ruth gently took the phone from him.
"Don't answer in anger," she said.
"She called him our son."
"Then let the lawyer answer the legal part. You take care of Noah."
Simone drafted a short response through counsel: Vanessa could arrange a supervised time to collect personal belongings, but she would not return to the nursery or contact Maria. Daniel started divorce proceedings. He felt no satisfaction as he signed the first papers.
His neighbors began texting. Someone had told them a housekeeper had endangered Noah and that Daniel was hiding the truth out of embarrassment. One message included a cropped photograph of Maria crouching by the wall outlet. The iron was outside the frame.
"She thinks if enough people repeat it, it'll become true," Daniel said.
"That's why evidence matters," Simone replied.
Maria received the same photograph with an anonymous accusation. Her sister urged her to leave town for a while. Maria refused.
"I'm tired of women like her choosing which frightened person gets blamed," she said. "I won't give her a second story to tell."
Daniel offered help with legal expenses. Maria accepted only after he agreed that she could choose her own attorney.
That afternoon Ruth examined the trust's monthly report. No unauthorized withdrawal had cleared. She had rejected two unusual requests, both citing emergency therapy and home security for Noah.
"They wanted thirty thousand from Elise's money," she said.
"Who signed?"
"The requests name you. The approval boxes include my initials. But I never entered them."
Simone asked to see the electronic audit information. The request came from a device registered under Vanessa's email address.
Ruth exhaled through her teeth. "She tried to steal from a child she was frightening."
May you like
Then she turned to the next page, and her expression changed.
"Daniel," she said, "one of these requests was submitted before you married her."
