Before their family learned to speak in scan results.
“What happened?”
Camille clasped her hands.
“He came to pick up a watch for my birthday.”
“Here?”
“At Briarwood.”
“Officer?”
“Mall security.”
Not police.
That distinction mattered.
Andre had parked in a loading zone for less than two minutes because an employee told him he could pull around while the gift was boxed.
A private security guard confronted him.
Andre apologized.
Moved immediately.
The encounter should have ended.
It did not.
The guard asked whether the Lexus belonged to Andre.
Then asked for registration.
Andre refused.
The guard threatened police.
Andre called Camille from the car, furious.
By the time police arrived, everything calmed.
No arrest.
No citation.
No dramatic video.
Just twenty-two humiliating minutes on a Saturday afternoon.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“You were twelve.”
“I’m fifteen now.”
“He died.”
“I know.”
Camille’s voice cracked.
“After he died, I couldn't turn every bad memory into another thing you lost.”
Jalen looked toward the floor.
“What happened to the guard?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“Briarwood apologized privately.”
“Your dad didn't want to pursue it.”
“Why?”
Camille smiled sadly.
“He said he had better things to do.”
Jalen almost laughed.
That sounded like Andre.
“Did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Have better things to do?”
Camille stared.
“No.”
That was why, when three families later contacted her firm about similar experiences, Camille could not dismiss the pattern as ordinary friction.
She still did not assume every accusation was true.
But she listened differently.
Jalen asked:
“Was Brenner there when Dad got stopped?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then they're not connected.”
“Not directly.”
Jalen thought.
“You took the case because you were still mad.”
“Partly.”
“Is that bad?”
Camille smiled faintly.
“Motives can be mixed.”
“That sounds like another lawyer answer.”
“It is.”
“Did you tell Briarwood about Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Before they hired you?”
“Yes.”
“Conflict?”
“Potential bias disclosed.”
Jalen nodded.
He liked hearing that more than he expected.
“What did Dad say after?”
Camille smiled.
“He bought the watch.”
“That’s it?”
“He came home.”
“He gave it to me.”
“He complained for approximately three days.”
“Then?”
“He moved on.”
Jalen stared at the cracked photograph.
“Maybe he didn't.”
Camille looked at him.
“What?”
“Maybe he just stopped talking about it.”
She had no answer.
That possibility had never occurred to her.
Andre had been good at not making pain everybody else’s problem.
Sometimes too good.
An independent law firm from Chicago took over the Briarwood review.
Lead investigator Teresa Alvarez had never met Camille before.
Good.
Jalen was interviewed with a youth advocate present.