At Our Weekly Sunday Dinner, My Daughter Squeezed My Hand And Whispered
Sole Custody
Detective Grimes said this physical evidence plus the doorbell footage gave them everything they needed for criminal charges.
The emergency custody hearing happened three days later in family court downtown.
I wore my only nice dress and brought copies of everything: the police reports, the lab results, and the doorbell footage timestamps, all organized in a binder.
Cormarmac helped me prepare. The judge read through the evidence while Brandon sat at the other table with his lawyer, looking pale.
She asked him one question about the pills found in his drawer, and he started crying, saying he never meant for things to go this far.
The judge cut him off and granted me immediate sole custody with a protective order requiring Brandon to stay away from us.
Waking Up
He could only see the kids at a supervised visitation center once the criminal case was resolved.
Oliver held my hand so tight as we walked out of the courthouse that his little fingernails left marks on my palm.
A week later, the PICU doctor finally said the words I’d been praying to hear: Gigi was stable enough to come off the ventilator.
I stood next to her bed, holding her hand as they removed the tube, watching her take her first real breath on her own in seven days.
She was so weak she could barely open her eyes, but she squeezed my fingers when I told her she was doing great.
The feeding team came that afternoon to teach me about refeeding syndrome and how to help her recover at home.
Explanations and Media
They showed me how to measure tiny amounts of formula every few hours, tracking everything she kept down.
When Gigi finally woke up enough to talk, her voice scratchy and small, she asked if Daddy would come see her.
I had to explain that Daddy was in timeout for giving her medicine that made her sick, using words a seven-year-old could understand while my heart broke.
The story somehow got out to local news channels, and my phone started ringing non-stop with reporters wanting interviews.
One reporter even showed up at the hospital trying to get past security to Xi’s room.
Cormarmac told me to document everything but not talk to anyone—that protecting my kids’ privacy was more important than telling my side publicly.
Preparing for the Board
I took screenshots of every message and every voicemail, keeping records in case we needed restraining orders against the media too.
The nursing board called to schedule an informal conference about my suspended license now that new evidence had come to light.
I spent three full days at Cormack’s office preparing my evidence packet, organizing medical records, police reports, and witness statements.
I showed I’d been trying to help my daughter while others were poisoning her.
Cormarmac coached me on what to say and how to present the timeline clearly, reminding me this was my chance to get my career back.
The 14-Month Plan
Then Detective Grimes called with news that shocked me, even though I shouldn’t have been surprised anymore.
Oilia’s lawyer had contacted him offering a deal where she’d testify against Brandon for reduced charges.
She gave them emails going back fourteen months showing Brandon planning this whole thing: researching which pills to use, calculating doses, even looking up pageant schedules in Miami.
The betrayal went so much deeper than those last six months of pills.
She had screenshots of Brandon telling her about Sydney’s perfect daughters and how Xi needed to be thin enough to compete with them for his image at the new job.
Detective Grimes asked if I’d be willing to make a recorded call to Brandon to get him talking about the pills.
The Recorded Call
I sat in the police station with recording equipment while Detective Grimes coached me on what to say.
When Brandon answered, he immediately started crying and begging me to drop the charges, saying we could work things out as a family.
I stayed calm and asked him why he gave our baby those pills.
He said he just wanted us to have a better life in Miami—that Sydney’s husband wouldn’t promote him if his daughter wasn’t pageant ready.
He said he did it all for us.
I asked him directly if he knew the pills would hurt her, and he said he thought she’d be fine.
Monitoring the Damage
He said other girls took them all the time and that I was overreacting like always.
Detective Grimes gave me a thumbs up as Brandon kept talking, digging his hole deeper with every word, still thinking he could manipulate me into forgiving him.
The next day, we met with the pediatric cardiologist who pulled up Xi’s heart scans on his computer screen.
He pointed to areas showing damage from the stimulants, explaining she’d probably have heart rhythm problems for years.
We’d need EKGs every three months, maybe medication if the irregular beats got worse, and she couldn’t play contact sports.
I took notes in my old nursing notebook, grateful I understood the medical terms even though each word felt like another knife in my chest.
Managing the Arhythmia
He printed out a thick packet about living with pediatric arhythmia and went through warning signs to watch for and how to check her pulse properly.
This wasn’t going away anytime soon, but at least now we knew what we were dealing with.
The next week, Sen called to set up Oliver’s first therapy session at the school, explaining she’d used play therapy to help him work through everything.
I walked him to her office that first Thursday morning and watched him clutch his backpack straps so tight his knuckles went white.
She had toys and art supplies spread across a low table and let him pick what he wanted to do while I waited outside.
Broken Pictures
Through the door, I heard her asking him to draw his family, and my heart broke when she showed me the picture later.
It had just me, him, and Gigi—no Daddy anywhere on the page.
She said this was normal and would take time, but at least he was starting to express his feelings instead of keeping them locked inside.
Three days later, my phone rang from a number I didn’t recognize, and when I answered, Brandon’s voice made my blood run cold.
He was calling from a burner phone, even though the protective order said no contact at all.
His words came fast and angry, saying if I didn’t drop the charges, he’d find a way to take the kids.
Threats and Charges
He said no judge would let them stay with someone who lost their nursing license.
I grabbed my other phone to record while keeping him talking, letting him dig his hole deeper with each threat.
He said he knew people who could make things hard for me—that I’d never work as a nurse again if I kept pushing this.
The second he hung up, I called Detective Grimes and played him the recording.
He came to take my statement that afternoon and said this violation would hurt Brandon bad in court.
Two weeks passed before the District Attorney’s office called to say they were filing formal charges against both Brandon and Oilia.
Formal Indictments
The prosecutor explained Brandon faced three counts of child endangerment plus administering harmful substances to a minor and conspiracy charges.
Oilia got charged as an accomplice, which carried less time but still meant she’d have a criminal record forever.
The arraignment got scheduled for the following Monday at the courthouse downtown.
I sat in the back row watching Brandon stand before the judge in an orange jumpsuit while his lawyer argued for reasonable bail.
The judge read through the charges and the evidence, including the protective order violation from the burner phone call.
She set bail at $200,000 with strict conditions, including GPS monitoring and absolutely no contact with me or the kids.
Seeking Reversal
Brandon’s parents sat in the front row, and his mother started crying when she heard what her son had done to Xi.
They posted his bail but wouldn’t look at him when he walked out.
Meanwhile, Cornmarmac worked on getting my nursing license back, filing a motion for reconsideration with all the new evidence.
The board scheduled a hearing for next month, and Cornmack said they seemed open to reversing the suspension.
He helped me organize every piece of evidence, including the criminal charges against Brandon and Oilia and statements from the doctors who treated Gigi.
Melinda came by the house for her follow-up assessment, watching how the kids were doing now that Brandon was gone.
