Chapter 4 - CASSANDRA TALKED FIRST
Cassandra accepted a plea agreement before Lorraine.
That shocked everyone.
She was thirty-one.
No children.
Worked in luxury retail.
For years, she had copied Lorraine’s tone with me.
Dismissive.
Superior.
Always acting as though Jackson’s mother gave her authority over our marriage.
Her attorney arranged a proffer.
I did not attend.
The prosecutor later told me what mattered.
Lorraine had planned the shopping trip before volunteering to watch Mia.
Cassandra asked:
“What about the kid?”
Lorraine replied:
“She naps.”
When Mia refused to nap and started crying for me, Lorraine became angry.
She placed her in the closet.
Cassandra objected initially.
Then stopped.
That mattered legally.
Not morally enough.
Before leaving, Mia tried to run after them carrying Rosie.
Lorraine pushed her back toward the hallway.
Cassandra pulled Rosie from Mia’s hands.
The doll caught in the door.
Ripped.
Mia screamed.
Cassandra threw the doll outside because:
“She wouldn’t stop crying about it.”
Then they locked the door.
That was the truth.
Not a momentary mistake.
A sequence.
Choice after choice.
Cassandra later told investigators Lorraine said:
“Emily babies her. She needs to learn she won’t always get rescued.”
My stomach turned.
Even here.
A lesson.
Cruel adults love calling suffering educational.
Cassandra’s cooperation reduced her sentence exposure.
I hated that.
Then Dr. Patel said something useful.
“You do not have to emotionally approve of a legal process for it to protect Mia.”
True.
I stopped reading updates obsessively.
The prosecutor handled prosecution.
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My job was Mia.
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