PART 8
“We will buy you a beautiful house and pay for any private university you want,” a defense lawyer promised Paige in a private room. “You just need to tell the judge that the video was edited.”
Paige sat next to a state child psychologist and looked the lawyer in the eye.
“All my life, I was told that being a Higgins meant we were untouchable,” Paige said. “I do not want that name anymore if it means pretending I did not hear a little girl screaming for help.”
Her formal statement broke the family’s defense completely.
Over the next two weeks, dozens of local residents visited a mobile federal prosecutor’s office set up in town. A construction worker brought photos of a severe hand injury that the mill had forced him to hide. A widow brought in the unauthorized pills her husband had been prescribed before his sudden death.
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Ronnie did not appear on the local news, nor did he give any public statements. He spent his mornings sitting by Anna’s bed and his afternoons working with Patricia to secure permanent custody.
Anna had begun intensive trauma therapy, and she frequently asked why her mother had not stepped in to save her.
