Chapter 7 - MARIA SAVED MEHazel met with a child-interview specialist.
Jonathan watched through one-way glass.
No one told Hazel what to say.
The specialist began with simple questions.
Her age.
Her school.
Her favorite color.
Then she asked about the broken cup.
“It belonged to Mommy,” Hazel said.
“Which mommy?”
“My first mommy. Olivia.”
“What happened?”
“I took it from the cabinet.”
“Were you allowed?”
“No.”
“What happened next?”
“Celeste pulled it.”
“Did you let go?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“It fell.”
“Did you throw it?”
“No.”
“What did Celeste do?”
Hazel demonstrated raising both arms.
“She picked up the golf club.”
“What did you think would happen?”
Hazel began crying.
“I thought she would hit me.”
“Why?”
“She said I needed a lesson I wouldn’t forget.”
The recorder had not captured that sentence because it occurred before the device activated.
The specialist waited.
“What happened next?”
“Maria ran.”
“Where did she go?”
“On top of me.”
“How?”
Hazel wrapped both arms around herself.
“She made her body like a house.”
Jonathan covered his mouth.
“Then what happened?”
“The club hit her. She screamed, but she didn’t let go.”
“Did Maria attack Celeste?”
“No.”
“Did your father tell you to say that?”
“No.”
“Did anyone?”
“No.”
“What did Maria say?”
“Don’t touch her.”
The specialist asked about earlier incidents.
Hazel described Celeste waking her at night.
Taking Olivia’s photographs.
Telling her Jonathan would send her away.
Recording her after provoking her.
“Why didn’t you tell your father?”
“I thought he liked Celeste more.”
Behind the glass, Jonathan lowered his head.
The specialist asked one final question.
“What do you want to happen?”
Hazel thought carefully.
“I want Celeste to stop.”
“Do you want her punished?”
“I want her not to come home.”
Her answer contained fear, not revenge.
The interview supported the protective order.
A family-court judge prohibited Celeste from contacting Hazel.
The court also suspended any authority Celeste might claim through marriage.
Outside the hearing, reporters asked Hazel questions.
Jonathan lifted his daughter and carried her through a private exit.
At home, Hazel asked whether Celeste could still send her to Blackwood.
“No.”
“What if the papers say I have to go?”
“They don’t.”
“She made papers.”
Jonathan looked at the forged documents.
“She did.”
“Then how do people know which papers are true?”
“They examine where they came from.”
Hazel looked toward the kitchen camera.
“Like videos?”
“Yes.”
The mansion security company began recovering deleted files.
Celeste had removed footage from many dates listed in her behavioral folder.
But the kitchen camera stored low-resolution emergency clips on a separate internal memory card.
The card had not been erased.
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The first recovered clip showed Celeste arranging broken porcelain on the floor days before the golf-club incident.
She was practicing how the scene would look.
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