Chapter 10 - THE SCHOOL
The brochure looked perfect.
Green lawns.
Smiling students.
Small classrooms.
Words like discipline, character, structure, correction.
Alexander hated it immediately.
David searched the facility.
The public website called it Briarwood Residential Academy.
Marcus found the complaints.
Parents accusing the school of isolation tactics.
Former students describing forced labor.
Restrictions on phone calls.
Punishment through food deprivation.
One lawsuit had been settled quietly.
Alexander stared at the screen.
“You were going to send Sofia there?”
Veronica crossed her arms.
“She needed discipline.”
“She needed protection from you.”
“She was becoming manipulative.”
“She was twelve.”
“She knew exactly how to control you.”
Alexander stood.
“Do you hear yourself?”
Veronica’s eyes filled with tears.
For a second, Sofia might have believed them.
Alexander didn’t.
“I was trying to save our marriage.”
“By removing my daughter?”
“She would’ve been gone one school year!”
Vincent laughed.
“You told me permanent placement.”
Veronica spun toward him.
“Shut up!”
The officer stepped between them.
Vincent smiled.
“Now I should shut up?”
Alexander looked at David.
“How close was this?”
David reviewed the papers.
“Very.”
“What does that mean?”
“Her enrollment was scheduled for Monday.”
Alexander went silent.
It was Friday night.
Three days.
Three days later Sofia would have been driven away.
And Alexander might have been told she was at a school retreat.
A counseling program.
Anything.
He suddenly remembered Veronica insisting he attend a conference in Singapore the following week.
Eleven days overseas.
His stomach turned.
“You booked my Singapore trip.”
Veronica said nothing.
“My assistant said the invitation came through you.”
“It was good for your company.”
“You needed me out of the country.”
“No.”
“You needed eleven days.”
“No.”
“To move her.”
“I said no!”
Alexander slammed his palm onto the table.
“You were going to disappear my daughter from her own home!”
Silence.
Even Vincent stopped smiling.
Veronica’s face hardened.
“She would have been safer there than with a father who doesn’t even know what’s happening in his own house.”
Alexander went still.
The insult landed because part of it was true.
He hadn’t known.
He had missed the signs.
The canceled dinners.
The quiet phone calls.
The way Sofia had stopped asking him to attend school events.
The way she always said, “It’s okay.”
He had mistaken silence for strength.
Then footsteps came from the stairs.
Sofia.
She had heard everything.
“You were sending me away?”
Veronica closed her eyes.
Alexander went toward her.
“Sofia—”
“To that place?”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Sofia stared at Veronica.
“You told me Dad signed the papers.”
Alexander stopped.
“What?”
Sofia’s eyes stayed on Veronica.
“You showed me his signature.”
David looked sharply at Alexander.
“Do you still have the papers?”
Sofia nodded.
“Under my mattress.”
She ran upstairs.
Veronica suddenly moved.
Not toward the door.
Toward the fireplace.
Marcus noticed first.
“What are you doing?”
Veronica grabbed a folder from her purse and threw it toward the flames.
Alexander caught her arm.
The papers scattered across the floor.
David picked one up.
His expression changed immediately.
“This isn’t the school form.”
Alexander took it.
It was a medical authorization.
He read the first lines.
Then looked at Veronica.
“What is this medication?”
Nobody answered.
Sofia returned holding her enrollment papers.
She saw the document in her father’s hand.
Her face turned pale.
“Those are the pills she gives me.”
Alexander stared at her.
“What pills?”
May you like
Sofia whispered:
“The ones that make me sleep.”
