Chapter 10 - “DADDY WILL SEND YOU AWAY”
The recording lasted four minutes.
Mia was building something with blocks.
Camille’s voice came from across the room.
“Clean it up.”
“No.”
“You know what happens to girls who don’t listen.”
Mia went quiet.
Then came the sentence.
“Why you say Daddy send me away?”
Camille answered too quickly.
“Because Daddy gets tired when you’re difficult.”
My hands clenched.
Mia asked, “Daddy no want me?”
“If you behave, Daddy wants you.”
The guardian stopped playback.
She looked at me.
I could barely speak.
“Play the rest.”
Camille continued.
“That’s why we don’t bother him at work.”
Mia sniffled.
“You tell?”
“I tell Daddy everything.”
That was the manipulation.
Camille controlled information both directions.
She told Mia I did not want to hear from her.
She told me Mia was thriving.
She made herself necessary by manufacturing the distance she claimed to manage.
The guardian listened to the recording twice.
Then she asked me a question I didn’t like.
“How often did you call home during workdays?”
“Not enough.”
“How often did you put Mia to bed?”
“Maybe twice a week.”
“Why?”
“My company was opening two regional offices.”
“Did Mrs. Harper discourage you from being home?”
I thought carefully.
“She told me Mia’s routines were easier if I didn’t arrive during bedtime.”
“Did you accept that?”
“Yes.”
That answer hurt.
Because Camille’s manipulation worked partly because it fit my life.
I had surrendered daily parenting while telling myself I was providing.
The guardian did not absolve me.
I appreciated that.
That evening I sat beside Mia while she ate macaroni at Rebecca’s house.
She dropped her spoon.
Then flinched.
A tiny movement.
She expected anger.
I picked it up.
“Accident.”
She looked at me.
“Daddy not mad?”
“No.”
“Camille mad.”
I did not question further.
I simply said, “You’re safe.”
Later, Thomas called.
Adrian had responded to a subpoena in the civil trust case.
He produced almost nothing.
He claimed Haven Ridge’s servers suffered a ransomware attack.
Rachel did not believe him.
Neither did I.
But suspicion was not proof.
Then the guardian received an anonymous email.
It contained a photograph of me drinking alone at a hotel bar six months after Natalie’s death.
Caption:
THIS IS WHO MIA’S FATHER REALLY IS.
The image was genuine.
So was my grief.
Camille had taken it.
I knew because she had been the person sitting beside me that night.
She was not merely attacking my parenting.
She was using the most broken period of my life as ammunition.
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And someone still close to her had access to everything she had collected.
📖 Camille weaponized my grief to make me look unfit, but the source of her evidence would reveal who was still helping her from inside our circle. 👇
