She forgot that a man distracted enough to miss the abuse is also a man with the resources to end it completely once he sees it — thirty cameras, a head of security, an attorney on retainer, and the specific, focused fury of a father who has just watched someone terrorize his children.
The footage was everything. Psychological abuse of minors, documented. The assault on Sofia’s wrist. And the fabrication of theft to frame an innocent employee — which, depending on how far Chloe had taken it, potentially exposed her to charges of her own.
My attorney was direct. “Alexander, this is a woman you were about to give legal standing in your children’s lives. You caught it in time. Now you make sure she never has access to them again, and you protect Marisol, who this footage completely exonerates.”
I did both.
Chloe came home that evening still believing I was in Toronto, still believing her performance was working, still believing she’d marry into my life in three months and spend it quietly making my daughters small.
