Chapter 11 - Knowing the Truth Didn't Make Milo Safe
The fertility records helped clarify motive.
They did not end the case.
CPS still had to assess both parents separately.
The district attorney's office reviewed the police report from the family room. Bernadette was told not to expect an immediate decision. The physical evidence mattered, but so did Milo's interview, prior incidents and the exact conduct investigators could substantiate.
The family court moved just as slowly.
Milo remained with Bernadette under a temporary safety plan.
Shana began parenting classes and individual therapy before anyone ordered her to.
Colby did not.
He called the process biased.
At work, the board substantiated misuse of company funds and violations of employee-conduct policy. Bernadette could have fired him immediately under the operating agreement.
Instead, she recused herself from the final employment vote because she knew Colby would claim she was punishing him for the family case.
The other directors terminated him.
That hurt more.
He could not call it his mother's revenge.
Bernadette expected satisfaction.
She felt none.
One evening, Milo found the old Brewers photograph in a box Bernadette had brought from the house with CPS approval.
He stared at himself on Colby's shoulders.
“Was Dad pretending there?”
Bernadette sat beside him on the floor.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“I don't know everything. But I know your dad loved you in a lot of those moments.”
Milo looked confused.
“Then why did he hurt me?”
Bernadette had spent months learning that adults preferred clean categories.
Good parent.
Bad parent.
Real father.
Fake father.
The truth was less comfortable.
“Sometimes people love someone and still do things that make them unsafe,” she said. “Love doesn't cancel what they do.”
Milo put the photograph facedown.
The next day, Shana asked for a therapeutic visit.
Milo agreed to fifteen minutes.
When she entered the room, she did not reach for him.
She sat in the chair across from him.
“I hit you,” she said. “And I made you keep a secret you never should've had to carry.”
Milo stared at his shoes.
Shana began to cry.
She wiped her face before speaking again.
“You don't have to forgive me because I'm sorry.”
Milo finally looked up.
“Why didn't you stop Dad?”
May you like
Shana had prepared for questions about Dean.
Not that one.
