Chapter 18 - The Emergency MotionThe district attorney requested an emergency protection order covering Jocelyn, Freya, Miriam, Claire, and several witnesses.
The court also scheduled a dependency hearing that could determine whether Harrison’s parental rights remained suspended long-term.
His attorney appeared without him.
The judge was furious.
“Your client is a fugitive.”
“My client disputes the characterization.”
“He failed to surrender on an active warrant.”
“He fears prejudgment.”
The judge stared.
“Most criminal defendants fear consequences. That does not authorize disappearance.”
Miriam attended.
The girls remained elsewhere.
Claire testified about Harrison’s conduct.
Malcolm introduced the school-tablet messages.
The judge read the proposed script Harrison sent Jocelyn.
Her expression hardened.
“This court is looking at a biological parent attempting to induce a child to provide a false statement relevant to criminal and financial proceedings.”
Harrison’s attorney objected to interpretation.
The judge responded:
“The messages speak rather loudly.”
Temporary contact was terminated entirely.
The dependency court would later consider permanent termination after criminal findings.
For now, Harrison legally could not contact the girls in any manner.
That did not mean he would obey.
Malcolm believed Harrison was searching for another Briar item.
The question was what.
Damon gave the answer.
“Natalie had an original partnership seal.”
“A what?”
“Embossing seal. Old-fashioned thing.”
“Why does it matter?”
“Some early Briar ownership certificates were paper.”
“Are they valid?”
“Potentially.”
Malcolm leaned forward.
“What would Harrison do with it?”
“Forge transfers.”
“Now?”
“He can’t win the criminal case with it.”
“Then why?”
Damon looked tired.
“Because Harrison still thinks like ownership is power.”
“Explain.”
“Briar’s remaining assets are in the girls’ trust. If he can create enough document confusion around old membership certificates, he can delay civil control. Create lawsuits. Pressure settlements.”
“He’d forge records using a company seal?”
“He’s done worse.”
“Where is the seal?”
Damon smiled bitterly.
“If I knew, I’d have sold it to him already.”
At least he was finally honest about himself.
Miriam remembered something.
Natalie once joked that Briar’s seal was “sleeping with the saints.”
Everyone assumed she meant a church.
Then Jocelyn remembered a small cemetery behind St. Agnes Church where Natalie’s parents were buried.
Malcolm refused to involve the girls in searching.
Police contacted the church.
The priest remembered Natalie requesting permission years earlier to install a small memorial box near her father’s grave.
Inside was no seal.
Only a note.
If Harrison is still looking for this, he still hasn’t learned that paper isn’t ownership. People are not either.
Malcolm almost smiled.
Below was another clue.
The seal went where Briar should have gone years ago: dissolved.
Natalie had destroyed it.
The entire chase was pointless.
Harrison had been pursuing an object that no longer existed.
Again.
The psychological effect on Harrison mattered.
Malcolm authorized a controlled release of information through his attorney.
Natalie destroyed the seal.
No paper route remained.
The trust was protected.
Box 214 was secure.
Laurel Court originals were in evidence.
Ellen Shore had copies.
The financial case no longer depended on anything Harrison could erase.
For the first time, he had no leverage left.
No key.
No girl’s memory.
No missing document.
No frightened ex-wife.
No rival partner to blame.
Only evidence.
Malcolm expected him either to surrender or become more unpredictable.
They prepared for the second possibility.
Jocelyn asked Miriam:
“What happens if Dad goes to prison?”
“He faces the consequences the court decides.”
“No. I mean to us.”
Miriam understood.
“Your case continues.”
“Can he still be our dad?”
“Biologically, yes.”
“Legally?”
“That depends on the dependency court.”
Jocelyn looked toward Freya playing outside.
“What do you want?”
Miriam chose her words carefully.
“I want you safe.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
Jocelyn waited.
Miriam sighed.
“I think Harrison has shown he is unsafe to parent you right now.”
“Ever?”
“I don’t know the future.”
Jocelyn nodded.
Again, no fake certainty.
“What if I never want to see him?”
“That matters.”
“What if Freya does someday?”
“That matters too.”
Jocelyn frowned.
“We can choose different?”
“Yes.”
That surprised her.
Sisters did not have to heal identically.
They did not have to forgive the same people.
They did not have to remember the same way.
Family did not require synchronized feelings.
That night a storm knocked out power.
The house went dark.
A door slammed upstairs.
BANG.
Jocelyn screamed.
Not loudly.
One sharp sound.
Then she froze.
Miriam found her in the hallway trembling.
“Wind.”
Jocelyn knew.
Her body didn’t.
The bedroom door at Harrison’s house replayed in her mind.
The servant dress.
His face.
Freya crying behind another wall.
Miriam did not touch her immediately.
“Want me close?”
Jocelyn nodded.
Miriam sat on the floor.
Freya came out carrying a flashlight.
“What happened?”
“Door slammed.”
Freya looked at Jocelyn.
Then walked upstairs.
She pushed the door open.
Wedged a shoe beneath it.
“There.”
Jocelyn laughed through tears.
One cheap sneaker held the door open.
Sometimes safety was not dramatic.
Sometimes it was a shoe.
At 2:17 a.m., Malcolm received a call.
A state trooper had stopped a vehicle for a broken taillight thirty miles outside Harrisburg.
The driver gave a false name.
The trooper recognized the face.
Harrison Reed was in custody.
And in the passenger seat sat a gray servant-style dress.
May you like
The same style he had forced Jocelyn to wear.
Folded carefully inside a plastic bag.
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