By the time I spoke with Daniel again, I had written down the questions I wanted answered.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to rely on memory alone.<\/p>\n
The past few days had left me exhausted, and I knew that fear could make it difficult to explain things clearly.<\/p>\n
I wrote down what Daniel had told me about the trust.<\/p>\n
I wrote down the approximate period during which Cole had been contacting the trust office.<\/p>\n
I wrote down that he had questioned my ability to manage financial decisions after childbirth.<\/p>\n
Then I stopped.<\/p>\n
Seeing those details on paper made them feel more serious.<\/p>\n
I had known that Cole could be dismissive.<\/p>\n
I had known that he could make me feel foolish for asking questions.<\/p>\n
But I had not understood that he was presenting those concerns to people who might have authority over my financial affairs.<\/p>\n
I was no longer dealing only with private arguments.<\/p>\n
I needed independent advice.<\/p>\n
Daniel understood that.<\/p>\n
He told me the attorney would help me understand the information available and decide how to proceed.<\/p>\n
I asked whether I should contact Cole.<\/p>\n
Daniel reminded me of his earlier advice not to confront him.<\/p>\n
I told him I wouldn't.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to create another argument before I understood the legal situation.<\/p>\n
I also didn't want to give Cole an opportunity to persuade me to abandon the steps I had already taken.<\/p>\n
I had spent too many years allowing conversations with him to change what I believed about myself.<\/p>\n
I wanted to be able to hear advice without worrying about how he would react.<\/p>\n
When I finished speaking with Daniel, I looked at the notes I had made.<\/p>\n
They were not complicated.<\/p>\n
They were a record of what I knew and what I still needed to learn.<\/p>\n
For once, I didn't feel compelled to soften the language.<\/p>\n
I didn't write that Cole might have misunderstood something.<\/p>\n
I didn't write that perhaps I was being too sensitive.<\/p>\n
I wrote down the information Daniel had given me.<\/p>\n
I could let the attorney help me determine what it meant.<\/p>\n
That evening, Emily asked whether I wanted to talk.<\/p>\n
I told her I was worried that Cole would tell people I was unstable.<\/p>\n
She asked why I believed that frightened me so much.<\/p>\n
I had to think about the answer.<\/p>\n
I was afraid that people would believe him.<\/p>\n
I was afraid that they would look at my decision to leave and decide it proved his claims.<\/p>\n
I was afraid that asking for help would be used as another reason to question my judgment.<\/p>\n
Those fears had kept me quiet before.<\/p>\n
I had tried to appear calm even when I was frightened.<\/p>\n
I had tried to make every disagreement sound less serious than it was.<\/p>\n
I had hoped that if I looked reasonable enough, Cole would stop treating me as though I couldn't think for myself.<\/p>\n
It hadn't worked.<\/p>\n
Emily listened.<\/p>\n
Then she told me that I didn't have to prove my worth by hiding what had happened.<\/p>\n
I looked down at my notes.<\/p>\n
I knew I couldn't control what Cole told other people.<\/p>\n
I couldn't make everyone understand me.<\/p>\n
But I could tell the truth to the people helping me.<\/p>\n
I could keep the evidence.<\/p>\n
I could answer questions honestly.<\/p>\n
I could stop changing my account of events just to make them easier for someone else to hear.<\/p>\n
That was what I intended to do.<\/p>\n
By the time I spoke with Daniel again, I had written down the questions I wanted answered. I didn't want to rely on memory alone. The past few days had … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37192,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37176\/revisions\/37192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}