Chapter 7 - RICHARD FINALLY LEAVES
Richard filed for divorce two weeks later.
Genesis called it betrayal.
Richard moved into a small furnished apartment near his company.
At sixty-six, he learned how to make terrible coffee.
He also learned every password on his own accounts.
Small things.
Late things.
Still meaningful.
Jackson reacted badly.
He blamed me for “breaking the family.”
I responded only through counsel.
Then he violated the protective order by appearing near my office.
The judge expanded the order.
Before it took effect, Jackson sent one last message.
Mom was wrong.
I was worse.
I knew enough to leave and didn’t.
I saved it.
Did not reply.
Meanwhile, the eleven-family civil case expanded.
Genesis’s defense argued she had broad authorization.
Some documents supported that.
People had signed.
But fraud lived in context.
Were signatures informed?
Were schedules swapped later?
Priya found metadata proving several attachments were changed after signing.
Same pattern as my deed.
Martin Vale’s office had used document templates with detachable signature pages.
Elegant fraud.
Reusable.
Systematic.
Then one victim, Helen Ross, remembered something.
Genesis hosted “family planning dinners.”
Wine.
Documents.
Social pressure.
Signatures.
My dinner had not been unique.
It was a ritual.
Get people comfortable.
Make refusal look rude.
Use family hierarchy.
Then paper.
That realization chilled me.
Abuse does not always hide in dark rooms.
Sometimes it sits under chandeliers with white tablecloths.
Then Jackson made a decision that shocked everyone.
He offered to testify against Genesis.
In exchange for consideration.
Prosecutors demanded full truth.
That included the assault.
He agreed.
Genesis’s attorney called him a coward.
Maybe.
Also a son finally turning.
Motives can be mixed.
He admitted he knew she was moving money around.
He did not know the full scale.
He knew she intended to pressure me into transferring the apartment.
He did not know the deed was forged.
He knew she was building a “mental instability” file.
He told her not to use it.
Then did nothing else.
The prosecutor asked him about the dinner.
“What did your mother tell you before Emma returned from the powder room?”
Jackson swallowed.
“She said, ‘If Emma refuses, remind her who has power.’”
“What did you think she meant?”
“That I should scare my wife.”
“What did you do?”
“I hit her with a plate.”
No euphemism.
No “lost control.”
No “incident.”
I hit her.
I cried when Dana sent me the transcript.
May you like
Not because I forgave him.
Because truth had finally entered the room without being forced.
