Chapter 10 - Richard’s Notebook
Richard kept a spiral notebook in his truck.
Not a diary.
Lists.
Money.
Tasks.
Resentments.
Margaret told investigators where.
One page:
House sale 272K.
Pay truck 38.
Mom cards 42.
Business debt 61.
Save rest.
Another:
Emily signs.
Another:
Girls to Mom if E unstable.
Then:
Baby?
No confirmed sex.
Another page later:
If girl, no more.
I stared.
No more what?
Pregnancies?
Marriage?
The prosecutor did not speculate.
Then a page dated two months earlier:
Need son before 35.
Dad promised land.
But Dad had promised nothing.
Frank was dead.
The land Richard received was already his.
Margaret had created a myth so thoroughly that Richard internalized it as a promise from dead father.
Then another:
Ava/Lucy funds?
Ask Mom after boy.
He knew something might exist.
Margaret had withheld.
Then an ugly sentence:
Emily thinks girls enough.
Not for Cole.
That ideology was his now.
Even if Margaret planted seed, he chose water.
Then Margaret’s proffer.
She admitted the male heir story was exaggerated.
Frank wanted family name remembered.
He never conditioned inheritance.
Why lie?
“Richard was aimless.”
She believed giving him a legacy goal would make him responsible.
Instead, it gave him a weapon.
Then physical abuse.
Margaret admitted she witnessed repeatedly.
“Why didn’t you stop?”
“He would get worse if challenged.”
“Did you help restrain Emily?”
She hesitated.
“Sometimes I held the rope.”
My breath stopped when I read later.
Then:
“Why?”
“So Richard wouldn’t hurt himself fighting her.”
That excuse collapsed under audio.
Then:
“Did you tell him where to hit?”
“I told him not to leave visible marks.”
Yes.
Then property.
She admitted filing quitclaim.
She knew I had not signed.
Richard supplied image.
She used her tablet to submit.
Direct fraud.
Then temporary care authorization.
She knowingly misrepresented scope when I signed.
Then child welfare reports.
She submitted both.
False.
Then selective videos.
She created them for potential custody.
Then one revelation.
The “one more documented event” note referred not to a random future incident.
It referred to a planned psychiatric evaluation after childbirth.
Margaret had already contacted a private counselor claiming I had postpartum psychosis after Lucy.
False.
I had postpartum depression symptoms briefly, never psychosis.
She wanted an appointment on record.
If I refused, she would call refusal evidence.
If I attended while traumatized, she hoped distress looked unstable.
They were building a maze.
Then pregnancy loss changed everything.
The plan had assumed baby would be born.
Then they would use postpartum vulnerability.
Instead, Richard’s violence caused a medical emergency that exposed them first.
Margaret accepted a plea agreement contingent on truthful testimony.
She would admit financial fraud participation, coercive control related offenses, false reports, and assistance in unlawful restraint.
She would not escape custody entirely.
Cooperation would reduce.
Richard learned.
He refused plea.
He wanted trial.
He said:
“My wife is lying because she wants my kids and my property.”
Property.
May you like
The San Angelo house was mine.
Even then, he called it his.
