At Our Weekly Sunday Dinner, My Daughter Squeezed My Hand And Whispered

Building the Case

Later that day, I sat with Detective Grimes in a small room at the police station going through our credit card statements line by line.

We found a clear pattern where Brandon ordered more pills every single time Xi started to recover and gain weight back.

The charges matched up perfectly with her worst episodes like clockwork; every time she’d been hospitalized, there was a big pharmacy charge two weeks before.

The detective took photos of everything, building his case file while I watched my marriage dissolve in credit card transactions.

Melinda called me the next morning while I was sitting in the hospital cafeteria trying to force down some toast.

Her voice was urgent as she explained we needed to file for emergency custody immediately.

Fighting for Custody

She met me at the courthouse that afternoon with a stack of forms already partially filled out, walking me through each section while Oliver colored quietly in his stroller beside us.

The family court clerk took one look at the medical reports Melinda attached and expedited everything, scheduling us for the following week instead of the usual month-long wait.

Melinda warned me that family court worked differently than criminal court—that the judge would care more about what was best for the kids than proving guilt.

She helped me organize my evidence into clear categories, showing I could keep them safe.

She explained that Oliver would definitely stay with me, but the judge might still order supervised visits for Brandon until the criminal case was resolved, which made my stomach turn.

Heart Damage Revealed

Back at the hospital that evening, Dr. Fraser pulled me into a quiet conference room with Gigi’s latest lab results spread across the table.

The toxicology report showed levels of fentamine and synthetic thyroid hormones that made her shake her head.

She explained how these substances had been slowly damaging Xi’s developing heart muscle over months.

She pointed to specific numbers on the cardiac enzyme tests showing ongoing damage that would need years of monitoring, maybe medication for life.

I took notes on everything, my old nursing knowledge helping me understand the medical terms while also making it worse because I knew exactly how bad this was.

Seeking Reinstatement

The next morning, I met with Cormack Davenport in his small office downtown, bringing copies of all the new evidence that proved I’d been telling the truth about Gigi’s symptoms all along.

He reviewed my nursing board suspension paperwork alongside the toxicology reports, nodding as he saw how the timeline matched up perfectly.

He saw how every symptom I’d reported was now explained by the poisoning.

He thought we had an excellent case for reinstatement since the suspension was based on suspicions that were completely false, and he started drafting the appeal right there while I watched.

Later that day, Sen called me to her office at Oliver’s school, handing me a thick folder she’d been keeping for months without telling anyone.

Inside were dated notes about every time Oliver mentioned Gigi being sick, every day she’d collapsed at pickup, and every concerning comment from teachers.

Independent Records

She’d documented Oliver telling her about watching Xi throw up after taking Daddy’s special vitamins and about being scared to eat dinner and hiding crackers under his bed in case he got sick too.

This independent record from a mandatory reporter who’d been watching our family deteriorate would be huge for both the custody case and clearing my name.

That night, while I was helping Oliver brush his teeth, my phone started blowing up with notifications from friends sending me screenshots of Brandon’s Facebook posts.

He’d written this long thing about how I had Munchausen syndrome, how I’d been making Xi sick for attention, and how he was just trying to protect his daughter from her mentally ill mother.

I screenshot everything before he could delete it, remembering Detective Grimes telling me to document everything but not engage.

Sydney’s Involvement

The next day, Detective Grimes called to tell me he’d interviewed Sydney at her house.

While she claimed she knew nothing about the pills, her story kept changing.

First, she said she barely knew Brandon, then admitted he came to her gym five days a week, then finally admitted he was desperate to move to Miami for the promotion her husband had offered him.

She let slip that Brandon had promised to bring his pageant-ready daughter to Miami—that her husband’s company loved hiring executives with picture-perfect families.

The pressure to have the right image suddenly made more sense.

Meanwhile, Melinda spent hours going through the old CPS reports with fresh eyes, marking every place where Brandon or Oilia had deflected blame onto me.

Manipulated Interviews

She showed me how they’d suggested I was unstable or neglectful while they were literally poisoning my child.

She showed me how they’d manipulated every interview, always being helpful and concerned while subtly pointing fingers at me.

They had created a pattern of suspicion that almost cost me everything.

She typed up an official addendum removing all concerns about my parenting from the file, stating clearly that I’d been the victim of false accusations while trying to protect my daughter from medical abuse.

Two days later, Detective Grimes called me with big news: Oilia had broken during questioning and admitted everything.

Oilia’s Confession

She’d been giving Xi pills after school for six months, crushing them into juice or yogurt and increasing the dose whenever Brandon texted her that Gigi was gaining weight.

She claimed Brandon manipulated her and that she thought the pills were safe supplements at first.

But she admitted she kept giving them even after seeing how sick Xi got.

She’d agreed to testify against Brandon in exchange for lesser charges, providing emails and texts going back over a year showing their whole plan.

The hospital responded by implementing strict security measures, putting Xi on a restricted visitor list with only me and my parents allowed in.

The Refeeding Protocol

They started a careful refeeding protocol since her body had been malnourished for so long, measuring every ounce of formula and tracking her weight gain carefully to avoid refeeding syndrome.

Each tiny meal she kept down felt like a victory, watching her color slowly return as her body finally got the nutrition it had been denied.

Sened helped me create a detailed safety plan for Oliver, teaching him a special word he could use if he ever felt unsafe and showing him how the new lock on the medicine cabinet worked.

We established predictable meal times so he’d know food would always be there.

We practiced scenarios where he could tell a trusted adult if something scared him, giving him back some control after months of helplessness.

Financial Burdens

I watched his shoulders relax just a little bit each time we went through the routine.

The next morning, I sat at the kitchen table with a stack of hospital bills that made my stomach hurt.

The financial counselor at the hospital walked me through their charity care program forms while Oliver colored next to me.

She helped me fill out every line, showing me where to list Brandon’s abandonment of the family and the criminal case.

The program covered 60% of Xi’s ICU stay, but I still had to set up payment plans for the rest—$20 here, $50 there, whatever I could manage each month.

At least now I knew what caused all this debt and could start rebuilding without Brandon draining our accounts for pills.

Doorbell Footage

Later that afternoon, while Oliver napped, I remembered our doorbell camera and logged into the app on my laptop.

My hands shook as I scrolled back through weeks of footage.

There she was: Oilia walking up our front steps at 3:15 p.m. on a Tuesday when I worked late, then again on Thursday at 3:20.

Every single day I had afternoon shifts, she showed up right after the school bus dropped Gigi off.

I downloaded every clip, watching her carry her big purse inside and leave twenty minutes later.

The timestamps matched exactly when Xi said she got her candy from Auntie.

Physical Evidence

I emailed everything to Detective Grimes, who called me back within ten minutes saying this was exactly the evidence they needed for the search warrant.

Two days later, Detective Grimes called to tell me they’d executed the warrant on our house while Brandon was at work.

They found a prescription bottle hidden behind his dress shoes in the back of his closet drawer, right where Xi said Daddy kept the pink pills.

The crime lab tested them and called back with results that made my blood run cold.

The pills were a mix of banned diet drugs from Mexico and thyroid medication that speeds up metabolism.

No wonder Xi’s heart kept racing and she couldn’t keep food down.