Chapter 17 - Harold’s counterattack
Harold’s lawyers argued the family had been manipulated by me.
Nathan Hale.
Former federal financial analyst.
Man with encrypted communications.
Hostile son-in-law.
They suggested I had trained Jake to interpret ordinary documents as suspicious.
False.
Jake did not know what the papers meant.
They suggested I wanted Harold prosecuted because I hated Christine’s family.
I did dislike Harold.
For years.
Again, inconvenient.
Harold also claimed the restraint incident began because Jake attacked him.
The camera showed Jake kicking.
After adults grabbed him.
Harold said the slap was:
“An instinctive reaction during chaos.”
Video showed a pause first.
Not very instinctive.
Then his lawyer produced my old professional history.
Not secret.
Just obscure.
A reporter found the story.
Suddenly headlines described me as:
Former federal operative.
Ex-intelligence investigator.
One article called me an “undercover government strategist.”
Ridiculous.
I had spent most of my old job with spreadsheets.
The mythology hurt us.
Because it made Harold’s claim that I had engineered everything sound less impossible to strangers.
So I did something my old self hated.
Nothing.
No interview.
No correction tour.
My lawyer released one statement:
May you like
Mr. Hale’s former employment has no bearing on whether adults unlawfully restrained and struck his eight-year-old son.
Exactly.
