Chapter 13 - The Cost of Coming Home
Andre reduced his travel.
At first, he overcorrected.
He attended every pickup.
Every practice.
Every therapy appointment.
Every school meeting.
Maya eventually complained.
“You're everywhere.”
Andre blinked.
“I thought that's what you wanted.”
“I wanted you home.”
“I am home.”
“You're also outside my classroom.”
Andre laughed.
“Point taken.”
Healing required presence.
Not surveillance.
His therapist—because Tasha finally convinced him to get one—asked a difficult question.
“What are you afraid happens if you aren't watching Maya?”
Andre knew.
“She gets hurt again.”
“Can you guarantee she never gets hurt?”
“No.”
“Then what can you guarantee?”
Andre thought.
“That she'll be heard.”
That became the new goal.
Not perfect protection.
Reliable belief.
Meanwhile the criminal case advanced.
Simone faced charges connected to financial fraud, unauthorized computer access, forgery-related conduct, and other alleged offenses determined by prosecutors.
Darren faced his own case.
Victor's was larger.
Family court separately addressed the children's safety and contact.
Reality was less cinematic than Andre once imagined justice would be.
There were motions.
Hearings.
Continuances.
Negotiations.
Forms.
Weeks when nothing happened.
Then everything happened at once.
Noah and Kayla were placed primarily with their maternal grandmother while Darren's case proceeded.
Supervised contact with Simone was eventually permitted for her biological children under professional guidance.
Maya was not required to participate.
Simone wrote her a letter.
Maya refused to read it.
“Can I throw it away?”
“You can.”
“What if I want it later?”
“Then we can save it.”
Maya considered.
“Save it where I can't see it.”
Andre gave it to his attorney.
The choice remained Maya's.
Kayla chose to read Simone's letter to her.
She cried afterward.
Noah did not.
Different children.
Different needs.
Andre learned not to force symmetry.
One afternoon Kayla asked him something he had feared.
“Are you still our dad?”
Andre sat beside her on Tasha's porch.
“You have a biological father.”
“I know.”
“And I'm not trying to replace him.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Andre smiled sadly.
She had learned Maya's directness.
“If you're asking whether I still love you, yes.”
“What if Mom goes to prison?”
“I still love you.”
“What if Dad does too?”
“Yes.”
“What if Maya doesn't want us around?”
Andre paused.
“That would be something we'd have to respect and work through.”
Kayla's eyes filled.
“Does she hate me?”
Maya answered from the doorway.
“No.”
Kayla turned.
Maya walked outside.
“I was mad.”
“I know.”
“I still get mad sometimes.”
“I know.”
Maya sat.
“But you're not your mom.”
Kayla started crying.
Maya did too.
Andre remained quiet.
No speech could improve what the girls were doing themselves.
Later, Kayla apologized for every dinner she remembered.
Maya stopped her.
“You didn't make the rules.”
“I followed them.”
“So did I.”
The sentence revealed something Andre hadn't understood.
Maya had also followed the rules.
Because children often obey systems that hurt them when disobedience feels more dangerous.
That evening Andre received final numbers from the forensic investigation.
Total fraudulent losses:
$714,380.
Recoverable through frozen accounts, property, insurance, and restitution:
Potentially more than half.
A year earlier Andre would have viewed the unrecovered amount as catastrophe.
Now he looked toward the kitchen where the children argued over cookie dough.
Money could be rebuilt.
Time could not.
His phone buzzed again.
This time it was his attorney.
Simone had agreed to testify against Victor.
And in her proffer, she had admitted the truth about Maya.
Not merely that she treated her unfairly.
She admitted why.
“She said,” the attorney told Andre, “that once Maya saw Darren in your office, she decided Maya had to leave the household before she could tell you enough to make you suspicious.”
Andre closed his eyes.
There would be no more pretending the food was ordinary discipline.
It had been a campaign.
May you like
And Simone had finally said so herself.
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