Chapter 13 - THE FATHER THEY WATCHED
I wanted Andrew’s visits suspended.
The child evaluator disagreed.
The messages proved emotional manipulation and complicity.
They did not prove supervised contact was currently unsafe.
Ending every relationship immediately might satisfy anger more than the girls’ needs.
Sophia wanted a pause.
Chloe wanted to ask Andrew questions.
The court allowed each child a separate choice within clinical guidance.
Sophia paused visits for six weeks.
Chloe continued.
During her second meeting, she brought a drawing of the ballroom.
Andrew sat at the head table.
Patricia held the bowl.
I stood beside the door.
Chloe drew herself beneath a red cloud.
“Where is Sophia?” Andrew asked.
“Outside.”
“She was beside you.”
“She got out.”
Andrew stared at the page.
“Where do you want me?”
Chloe pointed toward the space between Patricia and the bowl.
He began crying.
The supervisor did not end the session merely because an adult cried.
Chloe watched.
“Would you stand there now?”
“Yes.”
“Why not then?”
“I was afraid of losing the company and my mother.”
“Did you lose them?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should’ve picked me.”
No financial audit expressed the choice more clearly.
Andrew later provided complete testimony about Patricia’s planning.
He admitted modifying the false release and helping the notary.
He admitted authorizing collection of Chloe’s dress and placing a tracking tag beneath my handbag.
He claimed he expected the document recovered quietly after I left.
He denied ordering Celeste’s knife.
The garment bag blade remained part of Celeste’s separate case.
Andrew also admitted allowing Daniel Mercer to be locked in the archive room.
He said Patricia’s security director promised only a short interview.
He left knowing Daniel could not exit.
Prosecutors charged him with forgery conspiracy, unlawful confinement, corporate fraud, tracking-related offenses, and obstruction.
His cooperation reduced the likely outcome but did not erase charges.
Andrew’s attorney advised him to stop supervised visits until the criminal case resolved.
He refused.
“For once, I don’t want legal strategy deciding whether I show up.”
The statement sounded noble.
The supervisor still controlled every interaction.
Consistency mattered more than language.
Sophia resumed one visit.
She asked Andrew:
“Did you want a son?”
“I thought a son would make Grandma stop blaming your mom.”
“Would it make you love us more?”
“No.”
“Then why tell people we weren’t enough?”
“Because it kept me from fighting her.”
Sophia’s face hardened.
“You used us like a shield.”
“Yes.”
She ended the visit early.
Afterward she asked whether she had been cruel.
“No.”
“Dad cried.”
“Telling the truth can hurt someone without being cruelty.”
That distinction mattered because Patricia had always called any refusal an attack.
The trust audit moved forward.
Carla discovered employees’ retirement funds were safe but health-benefit reserves had been repeatedly borrowed and replaced before reporting dates.
No worker had yet lost coverage.
The practice violated policy and concealed cash shortages.
Patricia blamed the CFO.
Daniel produced emails showing Andrew approved one transfer.
Andrew had told prosecutors everything, he claimed.
He had not disclosed this.
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His cooperation had boundaries wherever truth threatened a harsher sentence.
The next phase would reveal whether he could stop managing confession like another transaction.
