Chapter 14 - THE PETITION THAT ALREADY EXISTEDThe guardianship petition was twenty-eight pages long.
Megan read every word.
By page six, she was angry.
By page fourteen, furious.
By page twenty-eight, she understood how long Evelyn had been planning.
The petition painted Megan as unstable, irresponsible and financially reckless.
It described Evelyn as Caitlyn’s “primary source of consistency.”
It claimed Caitlyn frequently turned to her grandmother for safety.
Megan nearly laughed at the cruelty of that sentence.
Safety.
The woman who had left Caitlyn behind a locked door had been preparing to tell a judge she was the child’s safest person.
Nicole Harper highlighted several dates.
“Look at these entries.”
Evelyn had documented Megan’s behavior for nearly eight months.
A late school pickup.
A disagreement with a contractor.
A weekend trip.
A crying episode on Ethan’s death anniversary.
Caitlyn sleeping at a friend’s house.
All transformed into evidence of instability.
“She built a file on me.”
“Yes.”
“While living under my roof.”
“Yes.”
Nicole pointed to another section.
“She also claims you’ve failed to maintain the property safely.”
Megan stared.
“That was written before the fire.”
“Yes.”
The irony was sickening.
Then Nicole showed her the handwritten note.
Emergency circumstances strengthen temporary petition.
Beneath it:
Wait until incident creates urgency.
No one could say definitively what “incident” referred to.
But prosecutors were interested.
So was Detective Bennett.
“So Evelyn’s plan was already waiting for some emergency,” Megan said.
Laura nodded.
“That’s one interpretation.”
“What other interpretation is there?”
“That an attorney was simply strategizing around future contingencies.”
“Whose handwriting?”
“We’re working on that.”
Megan looked again.
“Was it Evelyn’s?”
Laura did not answer.
Which was an answer.
That afternoon, Caitlyn returned to school for the first time.
Megan walked her inside.
The principal had arranged discreet support.
No announcements.
No dramatic welcome.
Caitlyn wanted normal.
But normal did not exist anymore.
At lunch, another child asked:
“Did your grandma try to burn you?”
Caitlyn burst into tears.
Megan was called.
She arrived furious at the adults who had apparently talked where children could hear.
Caitlyn sat in the counselor’s office.
“I don’t want everyone knowing.”
Megan knelt.
“You don’t have to tell anybody anything.”
“What if they think I’m weird?”
“They won’t.”
“They already do.”
Megan’s heart hurt.
“Then they’re wrong.”
Caitlyn looked at her.
“Did Grandma try to burn me?”
There it was.
The question Megan had avoided.
She took Caitlyn’s hands.
“The police are trying to understand exactly what Grandma did.”
“But you think she did.”
Megan chose every word carefully.
“I think Grandma made choices that put you in danger.”
Caitlyn’s eyes filled.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because of money?”
“Maybe money was part of it.”
“Daddy would be mad.”
“Yes.”
Caitlyn wiped her face.
“I’m mad.”
Megan nodded.
“You’re allowed to be.”
That evening, a forensic document examiner contacted investigators.
The note on the guardianship petition was consistent with Evelyn’s handwriting.
Not definitive alone.
But significant.
Then another detail emerged.
The draft petition had been modified the morning after the fire.
A new paragraph had been added.
It claimed the fire demonstrated Megan’s inability to maintain a safe home.
Megan stared at the timestamp.
Caitlyn had still been in the hospital.
Evelyn had already spoken to lawyers about using the fire against her.
The same fire in which she claimed nearly to have lost her beloved granddaughter.
Megan whispered:
“She didn’t even wait.”
Nicole shook her head.
“No.”
“What did she want?”
Nicole looked at the petition.
“What she always wanted.”
Megan followed her gaze.
Guardianship.
Control.
The trust.
May you like
The house.
And perhaps, Megan realized, Evelyn had believed the fire would give her all four.
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