Chapter 17 - THE PEOPLE WHO KNEW
The microSD card gave prosecutors what they had been missing.
Proof that Hearth's leaders knew families had not consented.
Proof of illegal surveillance.
Proof of forged research approvals.
Proof that private information from grief groups, schools, and service providers had been shared for profit.
Owen Cross was charged.
Caleb was charged.
Several Hearth employees cooperated.
Melissa testified.
Vanessa accepted responsibility for her role and agreed to testify against her brother.
I did not forgive her.
Cooperation was not redemption.
It was simply the first useful thing she had done after months of hurting my child.
Michael Bennett testified too.
So did Aaron Bell.
Mia Holloway was reunited with an aunt who had spent two years believing Mia had been legally placed somewhere she could not contact her.
That reunion was private.
It should have been.
"Claire's crash was reexamined."
I braced myself.
"No tampering," she said. "No evidence Hearth caused it."
I closed my eyes.
The accident remained an accident.
A terrible one.
For months, part of me had wanted a villain for every pain.
But not every tragedy comes with one.
Ramirez sat across from me.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good answer."
I laughed once.
She looked toward Emma, who was building a blanket fort in the living room.
"She seems better."
"Some days."
"And you?"
"Some days."
Ramirez handed me another file.
"What is this?"
"Names of families from the blue drive. The ones we confirmed were targeted."
There were twenty-three.
At the bottom was one final note from Owen.
The most effective condition for transition is parental disbelief.
I read it twice.
That sentence was the whole operation.
May you like
They did not need stronger locks.
They needed fathers and mothers not to listen.
