Chapter 8 - The Severance
With the criminal trial over, Mrs. Vance initiated the final step.
We formally filed to terminate my father's parental rights.
We had to face him one last time in family court.
He was brought in wearing shackles.
He finally looked at me.
His eyes were pleading.
He was desperate for a shred of the daughter who used to look up to him.
"Maya, please," he whispered across the aisle.
"I'm still your dad."
"Don't take my boy away forever."
I didn't feel anger anymore.
I just felt a profound, heavy emptiness when I looked at him.
"You stopped being my dad the second you let her touch him," I said quietly.
My voice was perfectly steady.
The judge signed the decree without a moment of hesitation.
His rights were permanently severed.
He was no longer legally a father to my brother.
And in my heart, he was no longer a father to me.
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The bailiff led him away.
The heavy chains dragged across the floor, echoing the finality of what he had destroyed.
