Chapter 7 - AARON’S LAST EMAIL
My brother’s laptop had been stored with estate property after his death.
Nobody had looked through personal email in detail because there had been no reason.
Now Diane obtained permission from the estate trustee to review relevant correspondence.
We found an email Aaron sent me six weeks before he died.
I had forgotten it because it looked ordinary at the time.
Pete, does Drew ever tell you Reena is “too strict”? He’s started saying she puts him in the laundry room when he melts down. I think he’s exaggerating but I’m keeping an eye on it. Don’t confront her. Just tell me if he says anything weird.
I stared at the screen.
He had asked me.
My own brother had asked me to watch.
I searched my old messages.
I replied:
Kids say crazy stuff. I’ll let you know.
Nothing else.
I wanted to punch a wall.
Diane stopped me from turning one email into a prophecy.
“You had no evidence then.”
“He told me.”
“He told you Drew said something vague.”
“I dismissed it.”
“Yes.”
Again.
Facts.
Not absolution.
We found two more messages between Aaron and Reena.
Aaron:
Locking him in rooms is not okay.
Reena:
It was five minutes because he tried to wake Lily. Stop making me the villain whenever I discipline your son.
Your son.
Not our son.
Aaron:
He is six. We don’t lock doors from the outside.
The message was dated two months before Aaron died.
So he had confronted her.
Not enough to stop it permanently.
But enough to prove the behavior predated his death.
Then another email from Reena:
Maybe Drew would be happier with Peter since Peter is apparently perfect.
Aaron:
Don’t weaponize my brother because you’re angry.
That sentence told me why visits became rare after Aaron died.
Reena did not merely dislike me.
I represented an alternative home.
A person Drew trusted.
A person Aaron himself had considered.
So she pushed me away.
That was the second pattern nobody wanted to see.
The third involved the camera.
The device had been purchased ten days after Aaron’s funeral.
Reena installed it herself.
The product receipt listed its intended location:
BASEMENT PLAYROOM.
Playroom.
The first recorded clips were mild.
Drew crying alone.
Lily sleeping on the mattress.
Over months, the punishment escalated.
Food restrictions.
Longer confinement.
Threats.
But the editing began only four months later.
Around the same time Reena first contacted Dr. Ward.
The camera had changed purpose.
From surveillance.
To evidence production.
Then Detective Cole found a draft document on the tablet.
A letter never sent.
Addressed to the probate court.
Subject:
URGENT CONCERNS REGARDING DREW LAWSON’S SAFETY AROUND YOUNGER SIBLING.
Reena described him as aggressive, manipulative, dangerous, and “increasingly fixated on controlling Lily.”
She requested guidance on therapeutic placement.
At the bottom, she wrote:
I fear Peter Lawson enables Drew and may attempt to interfere with necessary treatment.
She had already written me into the story too.
The indulgent uncle.
The obstacle.
The person who would misunderstand.
And yet she still hadn’t filed it.
Something was missing.
Some event she needed before making her move.
May you like
Then we found the date on the draft.
Two days before Drew’s leg was broken.
