Chapter 6 - Ricardo Learns He Helped Helena Sound CredibleRicardo’s guilt arrived quietly.
He found old messages from Camila.
Mom keeps speaking for me at appointments.
His reply:
She’s trying to help.
Another:
She moved my medication again.
Ricardo answered:
You two need to stop fighting over everything.
He had believed neutrality made him reasonable.
In practice, it made Helena’s version stronger.
Camila was emotional.
Helena was composed.
So Ricardo unconsciously treated composure as credibility.
During therapy he said, “I thought Camila needed someone to calm her down.”
The therapist asked, “Did you ever ask what she needed?”
He could not remember.
That was the answer.
After the investigation began, Ricardo became Bia’s temporary guardian while custody questions involving her father were resolved separately.
He nearly repeated the same mistake immediately.
Bia refused to sleep without the doll.
Ricardo thought keeping it would prolong trauma.
He almost removed it.
Then he stopped himself.
“Do you want Rosie in your room?”
Bia nodded.
“Okay.”
The doll remained.
Not as evidence anymore.
Police had photographed and returned it after documenting the hiding place.
To Ricardo it represented his sister’s fear.
To Bia it was still Rosie.
That distinction mattered.
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He had spent enough years letting adults turn objects, symptoms, and emotions into whatever story made them comfortable.
Bia was allowed to decide what her own doll meant.
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