Chapter 10 - The guardianship papers showed how the Higgins family confused preparation with entitlement
The draft guardianship petition was not a court order.
Not filed.
Not signed.
That distinction mattered.
Families with deployed parents often discuss contingency planning. Ronald himself had updated wills, beneficiary forms, and emergency contacts repeatedly.
So the existence of a plan was not sinister by itself.
The details were.
The draft assumed that if Ronald died while Anna was a minor, Dahlia would retain physical custody—which was reasonable as surviving mother, absent other factors.
But Ellis would petition to oversee certain financial assets.
Why?
The supporting memo described him as:
Experienced family financial steward.
It also suggested Ronald’s military insurance and inherited Savannah property should be managed “within a unified family framework.”
Unified family framework.
The Higgins translation for control.
Was Ronald’s Savannah property still his?
No.
He had sold it two years earlier and reinvested the proceeds.
The draft was stale.
But it showed long-standing thinking.
Then a second document surfaced.
A proposed “family education trust” for Anna.
Never executed.
It would have pooled Maribel’s custodial funds, future insurance proceeds, and Higgins family contributions under Ellis’s management.
Again, no legal effect.
But clear intent.
Dahlia had initially approved the idea.
“Why?”
“Dad said it was safer than having separate accounts.”
“Did you tell me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You would say no.”
Ronald looked at her.
There it was again.
Not uncertainty.
Predicted refusal treated as justification for secrecy.
Dahlia closed her eyes.
“I hear it now.”
“What?”
“How bad that sounds.”
It sounded worse because she had used the same logic when Anna found the ledger.
Do not tell Ronald because he will say no.
Do not let Anna document because she will tell Ronald.
Do not call police because Luke may go to prison.
Do not go downstairs because Ellis will see it as betrayal.
Every boundary became an obstacle to the family plan.
Then Dr. Serena Mills asked Ronald a question during family therapy.
“What are you afraid of becoming?”
He frowned.
“Like them.”
“How?”
“Controlling.”
“What would that look like?”
“Using what happened to decide everything for Anna.”
There.
He had already begun doing it in subtle ways.
He wanted to move states.
Change Anna’s school.
Cut off every Higgins relative.
Sell every object connected to Dahlia.
Some may eventually make sense.
But not all had to happen now.
Anna needed stability more than symbolic purging.
Serena asked:
“Did Anna ask to move?”
“No.”
“Then why are you planning it?”
Ronald sat back.
Because danger had happened in Blackwood Ridge.
His nervous system wanted distance to become safety.
Different architecture.
Same impulse as Dahlia’s family in another form.
Remove the environment.
Control the risk.
Ronald changed course.
He secured temporary primary custody through appropriate orders while Dahlia’s role was investigated and Anna’s needs assessed.
He remained near her medical team.
School support continued remotely until she could return.
No dramatic relocation.
Not yet.
Then Anna asked whether she could still talk to Paige.
Ronald said yes after professionals approved.
Paige apologized.
“I should’ve called sooner.”
Anna looked at her.
“Why didn’t you?”
“I was scared.”
“Of Grandpa?”
“Yes.”
Anna nodded.
“Everybody was.”
The sentence made Paige cry.
Anna did not comfort her.
She was nine.
Adults could carry their own feelings.
Then Paige remembered another detail.
After the ambulance left, she saw Cheyenne enter Ellis’s study and come out with the ledger.
Later Ellis took it.
But Luke followed him into the garage carrying Anna’s tablet.
“What happened?”
“I heard something smash.”
The destroyed tablet?
Investigators already had the damaged device.
Dahlia claimed she dropped it later.
Maybe not.
Physical examination showed impact damage inconsistent with a simple drop.
Could Luke have smashed it?
Likely.
Again, evidence needed.
Then Paige said:
“He was yelling about a drive.”
“What drive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exact words?”
She thought.
“Where’s the damn drive she copied it to?”
Anna had said she made no copy.
Was Luke assuming?
Maybe.
Then Ronald remembered something Anna always carried.
A small purple USB drive shaped like a cat.
He had given it to her for school projects because she liked moving drawings between computers.
Had she used it?
Anna frowned when asked gently.
“I put pictures on it sometimes.”
“The picture of Grandpa’s papers?”
“I don’t remember.”
Where was the drive?
Her school backpack.
Where was the backpack?
Dahlia’s house.
Evidence inventory from the first local search did not list it.
Dahlia believed Cheyenne collected Anna’s belongings after the ambulance left.
Cheyenne denied seeing the drive.
Then a hospital nurse remembered something.
Anna arrived clutching a torn backpack strap.
The actual backpack did not come with her.
Why the strap?
Anna said Luke grabbed the bag.
The strap tore.
The backpack remained in the yard.
Paige’s video thumbnail showed a dark object near the fence.
By morning, gone.
Who removed it?
Security audio offered a clue.
At 10:36 p.m., after the ambulance left:
Cheyenne:
“Get her bag.”
Reid:
“Why?”
Cheyenne:
“Because everything she touches becomes evidence for Ronald.”
The bag had been deliberately collected.
Then a search of Higgins Finance off-site records found a surprising chain-of-custody entry.
Nora had logged an item Ellis asked her to lock in a document cabinet the next morning.
Description:
Anna school bag — family matter.
Nora had not opened it.
The cabinet was still sealed.
Inside investigators found the backpack.
And in a side pocket:
May you like
The purple cat-shaped USB drive.
Cliffhanger: Anna’s missing backpack had been hidden inside Higgins Finance since the morning after the assault—and the USB drive inside it might contain the evidence Luke and Cheyenne believed had been destroyed.
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