Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE PAYMENT
My parents were not about to be homeless the week I found Rosie.
That mattered.
They were behind months earlier.
Bethany paid $72,000 toward the private mortgage.
The loan became current.
She then paid $4,600 monthly toward carrying costs.
My father’s pension and consulting income covered the rest.
So when he threw the glass and shouted that I could not leave, he was not protecting the only roof over his head from immediate foreclosure.
He was protecting a system that had become comfortable.
Important distinction.
Fear started it.
Dependence maintained it.
My mother handled accounting.
She knew BJM paid.
She claimed she believed the income came from ordinary lifestyle content.
Maybe initially.
Then police found her message:
MOM:
Rosie was crying again after filming.
BETHANY:
She resets fast.
MOM:
Her father will notice those circles.
BETHANY:
Long sleeves.
I read it twice.
Mom knew about the marks.
Not their cause maybe?
The message suggested enough.
My father’s messages were worse in another way.
DAD:
Northstar said stop that prop.
BETHANY:
ClipForge didn’t.
DAD:
I don’t want details.
I don’t want details.
The sentence of a man deliberately purchasing ignorance.
Daniel cried when he read it.
“I should’ve known.”
“You were not there every time.”
“I was there enough.”
That was true too.
He lived twenty minutes away.
Visited weekly.
He noticed Bethany filming.
Thought it was work.
Once Rosie cried after a “surprise game.”
Daniel told Bethany:
“Enough.”
Bethany called him dramatic.
He left.
Did not tell me.
“Why?”
He looked at the floor.
“Because you and I barely talked.”
Also true.
After Hannah? No mother not named. Need explain sibling distance. We can say after our parents sided with Bethany in past conflict, Daniel and I drifted. No need.
He continued:
“And because Bethany always makes you feel stupid for caring.”
That was her skill.
Not supernatural manipulation.
Social pressure.
Mocking concern.
Calling boundaries sensitive.
Exactly what she did in the living room.
The child-services investigator interviewed my parents separately.
My father admitted:
He knew Rosie appeared in commercial reaction videos.
He believed I had eventually consented because Bethany showed him the signed release.
“Did you know she copied his signature?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
“Why sign as witness if you did not watch him sign?”
My father had no defensible answer.
My mother admitted seeing the suction marks.
Bethany told her:
“Temporary toy impressions.”
Mom applied lotion.
Did not call me.
Why?
“She said you’d overreact.”
The family’s most effective weapon had always been my supposed overreaction.
Make concern embarrassing.
Then no one speaks.
My father’s criminal exposure now included:
Reckless endangerment for throwing the glass.
Possible false witnessing on commercial consent documents.
Potential child-endangerment complicity.
My mother:
Failure-to-protect issues.
Potential fraud.
Bethany:
Much larger.
Then Northstar disclosed a development memo.
BJM Home Creative was being considered for a larger unscripted project.
Working title redacted under commercial confidentiality.
The memo said:
ROSIE CHARACTER TESTS EXCEPTIONALLY WELL.
Character.
My daughter.
Then:
FAMILY ACCESS MUST BE SECURED BEFORE OPTION EXERCISE.
Option.
How much?
Northstar initially refused.
The court ordered preservation.
Not disclosure yet.
Bethany’s attorney fought hardest against that single document.
Julia looked at me.
“That’s probably where the real money is.”
May you like
She was right.
But the contract would not open until Chapter 10.
