PART 24
The security manager eventually cooperated through counsel.
He said Brandon ordered him to check whether guest-house footage had
uploaded.
The manager claimed he refused to delete anything.
He said Brandon became angry and took the office tablet.
Again, investigators sought corroboration.
Access logs placed that tablet on the account.
Rosa remembered seeing Brandon enter the security office.
No single witness had the entire picture.
That was why independent pieces mattered.
PART 25
Ethan’s position began separating from his family’s.
His attorney requested a meeting with prosecutors.
Margaret was furious.
Emily heard about it through counsel.
She looked at me.
“He’s going to blame Brandon.”
“Maybe.”
“He always does that.”
“What do you want to happen?”
She thought for a long time.
“I want him to tell the truth.”
That answer made me proud.
Not because it was forgiving.
Because it was precise.
She did not need a theatrical punishment.
She needed the lie to stop.
PART 26
Ethan eventually admitted conduct that directly contradicted his
original account.
He acknowledged grabbing Emily during the argument and preventing her
from leaving for a period of time.
He admitted taking her phone.
He said Brandon escalated the confrontation.
He denied some of Emily’s allegations and disputed the sequence of
certain injuries.
Those disputes did not vanish.
The legal process continued.
But the claim that nobody touched her was finished.
Margaret’s hospital statement was no longer defensible even within her
son’s account.
