The Children Who Heard Everything
Chapter 05 - The Children Who Heard Everything
The next forty-eight hours changed Jonathan's understanding of his daughter's marriage.
Lily talked first.
Then Noah.
Not all at once.
Children rarely tell painful truths in perfect order.
They remembered moments.
Dad shouting because dinner was late.
Mom hiding bills beneath a mattress.
Dad taking Mom's phone.
Mom sleeping beside Lily after an argument.
Noah remembered something stranger.
"Mom used to throw away the drinks Dad made her."
Jonathan looked at him.
"What drinks?"
"The green ones."
Lily explained.
Michael had started making Emily vitamin smoothies when her health worsened.
At first Emily drank them.
Later she secretly poured them down the sink.
Jonathan immediately contacted the detective.
The police searched Michael's house with a warrant.
They found supplements.
Prescription bottles.
Financial records.
But nothing that directly proved Michael had poisoned Emily.
The medical examiner agreed to review Emily's toxicology results.
The guardianship hearing still moved forward.
Michael hired an aggressive attorney named Rebecca Sloan.
She argued that Jonathan was exploiting grief to steal his grandchildren.
She pointed to his age.
His former position as a judge.
His strained relationship with Michael.
Jonathan's attorney warned him.
"This won't be easy."
Jonathan looked through the office window where Lily and Noah were coloring together.
"It doesn't need to be easy."
He turned back.
"It needs to keep them safe."
Then his attorney handed him a document.
Michael had filed something unexpected.
A petition claiming Emily had been mentally incompetent when she requested guardianship.
If he proved it, her final wishes could be invalidated.
Jonathan read the petition twice.
At the bottom was the name of the psychiatrist Michael claimed had treated Emily.
Dr. Stephen Warner.
Jonathan knew the name.
He had seen it before.
May you like
Not in Emily's medical records.
On Michael's gambling-company paperwork.
