PART 12

The children’s interviewer met Tessa in a small room with soft chairs and a shelf of games.

We weren’t allowed to sit in the room, which hurt until Marisol Chen explained that the interview needed to be conducted without parental prompting.

Tessa could stop whenever she wanted.

She was told she did not have to invent answers when she didn’t remember.

Afterward, Chen couldn’t share every detail with us, but she said Tessa had described several troubling interactions with Harold, including being told to keep secrets and being punished with silence when she refused to do what he wanted.