Chapter 8 - WHAT TOVE WANTED MIREYA TO SAY
Mireya did not know what custody meant.
She knew:
Court lady.
Better care.
Daddy forgets.
Tove keeps medicine safe.
Those phrases had been repeated.
Dr. Maya Chen conducted a forensic interview separate from custody evaluation.
“Did Tove tell you what to say?”
Mireya nodded.
“What?”
“Daddy loses my breathing thing.”
“Does Daddy lose it?”
“Sometimes.”
My heart sank.
Then:
“When?”
She pointed toward Tove? Not present. “Tove says.”
Maya clarified.
“Do you remember Daddy losing it yourself?”
Mireya thought.
“One time car.”
True.
I had left an inhaler in my truck overnight.
We used the backup.
No medical crisis.
Tove transformed one mistake into identity.
Then:
“What else did Tove want you to say?”
“That I like sleeping her house.”
“Do you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did Tove tell you to say always?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So court lady lets me stay.”
“Did you want that?”
Mireya shook her head.
Then:
“Tove cried.”
There.
Emotional pressure.
“What happened?”
“She said she needs me.”
Not:
I need you.
She needs me.
That phrase told me more about motive than any financial record could.
Naomi asked whether Tove had money tied to guardianship.
We checked because motive matters.
No trust windfall.
No insurance.
No child-support jackpot.
Annelise’s life-insurance proceeds were in a custodial trust for Mireya under independent administration.
A guardian would not own them.
Could a guardian receive approved reimbursement?
Yes.
Ordinary expenses.
Not enough to explain the obsession.
No hidden mansion.
No inheritance transfer based on custody.
Good.
The motive was becoming personal.
Tove wanted Mireya.
Not for money.
For role.
For identity.
That was somehow worse emotionally and cleaner legally.
Then we found therapy notes.
Tove had been seeing a therapist for grief after our parents died and after Annelise’s death.
Confidential.
Not automatically available.
Only limited material entered court after Tove herself put her emotional caregiving claim at issue and her counsel waived specific portions.
The relevant note:
Client describes niece as “the child I should have had.”
I stopped reading.
Tove had suffered an ectopic pregnancy at thirty-two.
Emergency surgery.
She later chose not to pursue parenthood.
Important:
That did not make her dangerous.
Millions of people experience pregnancy loss without harming anyone.
It explained one emotional wound.
Not conduct.
Another note, years later:
Client reports growing resentment when brother reasserts parental boundaries after relying heavily on her following spouse’s death.
There.
More useful.
She did not become obsessed because she could not have children.
She became entitled because I let temporary caregiving expand without defining its limits.
Again:
Her choice.
My failure to set boundaries.
Both.
Then one more court filing appeared.
Emergency petition.
Tove claimed the inhaler-throwing incident had been misunderstood.
She also cited my slap as evidence of violent temperament.
That was legally fair game.
I had hit her.
My retaliation had given her a fact she could use.
The hearing was scheduled for Monday.
May you like
And for the first time, I understood that protecting Mireya now required more than proving Tove lied.
I had to prove I could tell the truth about myself too.
