After drop-off, my son’s teacher asked, “Why is your son absent today?”

Naelli observed how I checked if he wanted seconds, how I asked about his day, and how I reminded him to brush his teeth after dinner. She watched the bedtime process too, seeing me making sure his room was clean, helping him pick out clothes for tomorrow, and tucking him in with his stuffed dinosaur. When she was ready to leave, Naelli told me she was satisfied with what she saw.

She reminded me that these unannounced checks would continue for the foreseeable future but that so far I was doing everything right in terms of providing stability and safety for Theo. After she left I sat in the living room trying to decompress from the longest day of my life. I must have dozed off in the chair because I woke up to Theo screaming.

It was 1:30 a.m. I ran to his room and found him sitting up in bed tangled in his sheets with his face wet with tears. He was saying something about cement bags and not being fast enough.

I sat on the edge of his bed and turned on his lamp keeping my voice calm as I told him he was home and safe. It took almost 20 minutes to get him settled down enough to try sleeping again. I left his door open and the hallway light on.

At 4:15 a.m. he woke up screaming again. This time it was because he heard a truck engine outside our apartment building which was probably an early morning delivery. He was convinced Uncle Mike had come to take him back to the construction site.

I ended up pulling a chair into his room and sitting there for the rest of the night dozing in and out while Theo finally fell into a deeper sleep around 5:00 a.m. By the time morning came we were both exhausted but I could see he felt more secure being home than he had in weeks. I made him breakfast and we got ready for the appointment at the Child Advocacy Center.

The building was designed to look friendly and non-threatening with bright colors and toys in the waiting area. A woman with kind eyes introduced herself as the interviewer and explained to Theo that she just wanted to hear his story about what happened. She told him there were no wrong answers and he could take breaks whenever he needed.

Then she took him back to a private room while I sat in the lobby trying not to imagine what he was having to describe in detail. The minutes crawled by while I picked up a magazine but couldn’t focus on any of the words. After what felt like forever but was actually 45 minutes, the interviewer brought Theo back out.

He looked tired but also relieved like telling his full story had lifted some weight off his shoulders. Detective Price came out of an observation room and walked over to us. He told me the interview went well and that Theo was very brave.

Then he introduced me to a woman in a business suit who he said was Assistant District Attorney Roxanna Null. She shook my hand and asked if we could talk privately for a few minutes. I told Theo to wait in the lobby and play with the building blocks while I followed them into a small conference room.

Roxanna explained that based on Theo’s interview and all the evidence collected so far they were looking at serious charges. Uncle Mike would face child labor violations and child endangerment. Maya and Derek would be charged with conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and potentially forgery.

She warned me that plea negotiations would likely happen and asked how I felt about the possibility of reduced charges in exchange for cooperation and restitution. I told her I wanted them punished but I also wanted this over with quickly for Theo’s sake. She nodded and said she understood.

Later that afternoon my phone rang while Theo and I were eating lunch. It was Detective Price again. He told me that OSHA and state labor investigators had descended on Uncle Mike’s construction company that morning for a full audit of all workers, safety protocols, and employment records.

They’d identified at least three other workers who appeared to be minors based on the records which meant Uncle Mike’s legal problems just multiplied big time. The construction company had been ordered to cease all operations until the investigation was complete. Detective Price sounded satisfied as he explained this meant more resources would be dedicated to the prosecution.

He called back an hour later with more news. They’d subpoenaed bank records for Maya, Derek, and Uncle Mike to trace the money flow from Theo’s labor. Early results showed regular transfers from Uncle Mike to Maya labeled as family support totaling over $5,000 in the past 3 weeks.

This financial evidence proved that Maya wasn’t just allowing the exploitation, she was directly profiting from it in a way that would be hard for her to explain away in court. I felt sick hearing the actual dollar amounts knowing my son had been reduced to a source of income for his own mother. Two days later I got a call from someone at the school district.

They’d sent a forensic document examiner to analyze the forged permission slips. The examiner compared them to my actual signature on file and checked printer identification codes. The results confirmed that the signatures were forgeries and that the documents were printed from a printer located in Derek’s apartment complex office.

Security footage even showed Derek accessing that office on dates that matched when several of the forms were created. This evidence directly tied Derek to the forgery scheme and showed it was planned out, not just a spontaneous bad decision. The next morning Naelli called my cell.

She told me that CPS was scheduling an emergency custody hearing in family court for next week. A judge would review all the evidence and determine temporary custody arrangements while the criminal case worked its way through the system. She explained that I needed to bring all my documentation showing my stable home environment, my cooperation with authorities, and proof that Theo was doing well in my care.

Naelli assured me that based on everything she’d observed she would be recommending that Theo remain in my custody with supervised visitation only for Maya if she complied with certain conditions. I thanked her and started gathering every piece of paper I could find including paystubs, lease agreement, character references, and Theo’s old report cards. That afternoon my boss called me into his office.

He closed the door and asked me to sit down. He said he was sympathetic to what I was going through but he had to point out that I’d used all my personal days and was now cutting into unpaid leave. If it continued much longer it could affect my job security.

I explained the situation in general terms without going into all the details. He listened and said he would work with me but I could hear the concern in his voice. The conversation made me realize how bad my financial situation was becoming.

Legal fees were piling up even though I hadn’t officially hired a lawyer yet. Lost work time meant smaller paychecks and I still had rent, utilities, food, and now therapy costs for Theo to worry about. I walked out of his office feeling the weight of everything crushing down on me.