Chapter 8 - I Filed the Report
My attorney told me there was a difference between knowing something and being willing to act on it.
I understood that too well.
For days, I kept hoping my parents would voluntarily return Emily’s bag.
They didn’t.
So I stopped waiting.
I made a formal report concerning the suspected financial fraud and provided copies of the records we had.
Separately, the child-welfare investigation concerning Rosie continued.
Bethany’s attorney arranged for her to give a truthful account of the assault.
That decision meant she could face consequences.
She knew it.
I knew it.
Neither of us pretended otherwise.
My parents reacted within hours.
Mom called relatives.
Dad called me ungrateful.
An uncle I hadn’t spoken to in three years told me I was destroying two elderly people over “old paperwork.”
Then my parents changed the locks on their house.
That told me something.
Emily’s belongings were still inside.
My attorney advised against trying to retrieve them myself.
We pursued the property through proper channels.
Waiting was unbearable.
Meanwhile, Rosie stopped asking to see Grandma.
That hurt in a way anger couldn’t touch.
She began checking doors before bed.
She asked Claire whether grown-ups were allowed to slap children if they were “really mad.”
I arranged counseling.
The first appointment cost me half a day’s pay.
I went anyway.
That night, Rosie climbed into my bed carrying her rabbit.
“Is Aunt Bethany sorry?”
“I think she is.”
“Can sorry make my face normal?”
Her bruise was already fading.
She meant something else.
“No.”
She nodded as though that made sense.
Then my phone buzzed.
Jason.
He had received a message from Margaret.
She wanted to meet privately.
She offered him money to sign a statement saying Emily had given him the red bag voluntarily before her death.
Jason sent me a screenshot.
My mother wasn’t trying to explain the evidence anymore.
May you like
She was trying to change where it had come from.
And that meant the bag contained something worse than the records we already had.
