Chapter 6 - THE FAMILY MEETING WITH WITNESSES
Two days later, Gregory and Brenda were barred from contacting me, Wyatt, Melanie, or Silas except through their attorneys.
Before that order was issued, they requested one final conversation at the hospital. Their attorney apparently believed cooperation might prevent additional charges.
Officer Brooks remained by the door. The prosecutor’s investigator recorded the meeting. Silas sat beside Marisol. Melanie stood at the back of the room with her arms locked across her stomach.
Gregory refused to sit.
“I made a mistake,” he said. “I lost my temper.”
“You placed the brick before we arrived,” I said.
He glanced at Silas. “He doesn’t know what he saw.”
Silas tapped the certified will resting on his lap. “I knew your mother longer than you did. I know her signature too.”
Brenda turned to me.
“We were trying to protect the family home.”
“You borrowed against a house Grandma left to me.”
“We raised you there.”
“You nearly killed me there.”
Brenda looked at my bandages and then away.
Gregory claimed the loan saved employees’ jobs. He said Melanie’s education fund had already been damaged by market losses and that using the remaining money had been the only practical choice.
Melanie interrupted him.
“You spent it on the lake property.”
Gregory stopped.
The flash drive contained photographs of a cabin in Logan County purchased through a company controlled by Brenda. The cabin had been intended as their retirement home after the printing business was sold.
They had not stolen to preserve the family.
They had preserved themselves.
Brenda’s voice sharpened. “We gave both of you everything.”
“You gave us roles,” Melanie said. “Sadie was the enemy. I was the tool.”
It was the first time she had spoken against them without asking me to save her afterward.
Gregory turned toward Wyatt.
“You can end this. Pay the loan, drop the charges, and we walk away.”
Wyatt’s expression did not change.
“You still think this is a negotiation.”
“I think you claim to love my daughter.”
“I do. That’s why I won’t buy the people who hurt her.”
Gregory looked at me as though expecting me to correct Wyatt.
I did not.
The investigator placed printed messages from the flash drive on the table, followed by the video transcript and photographs of the brick recovered from the lawn.
My father could acknowledge what he had done or continue lying against physical evidence, six witnesses, and his own words.
He chose the lie.
“Sadie provoked me.”
Brenda nodded.
Melanie closed her eyes.
The investigator ended the meeting. Gregory’s refusal would become part of the prosecution’s record, but it also clarified something the rest of us had resisted.
May you like
Accountability would not begin with his remorse.
It would begin without it.
