Chapter 10 - The Name Behind the Money
The founder’s name was Charles Beaumont.
Richard’s older brother.
To Isabelle, Uncle Charles had died when she was twelve.
Another dead man.
Another lie.
He had been living in Switzerland under an assumed identity.
Unlike Andrew, Charles had never cared about revenge.
He cared about money.
Project Hearth had become an international extortion business.
The evidence from Margaret and the ledger allowed investigators to identify accounts across several countries.
The story reached the press.
Our quiet suburban nightmare became national news.
Reporters gathered outside Saint Luke.
I hated every second of it.
Toby deserved privacy.
So we gave no interviews.
No photographs.
No dramatic statements.
But Richard did.
From jail, through his attorney, he blamed me.
He claimed I had manipulated Isabelle.
He claimed Toby had exaggerated.
That claim lasted less than a day.
The driveway video was authenticated.
Medical evidence supported Toby’s account.
Witness statements aligned.
Richard’s public story collapsed.
Then came something I hadn’t expected.
Messages.
Thousands.
Parents.
Teachers.
Survivors of controlling families.
People who recognized Isabelle’s silence because they had lived inside similar fear.
Isabelle read some of them.
Then she finally said the sentence I had waited nine years to hear.
“I don’t want to be afraid of him anymore.”
She agreed to testify publicly.
Richard learned about it the next morning.
And immediately requested to see his daughter.
Isabelle agreed.
I asked why.
She looked at me.
May you like
“Because I need him to hear me say no.”
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