Chapter 7 - WHY DAD CLOSED THE KENNEL
For almost a year, one memory bothered me most.
Dad closing the gate.
Kelsey shoved me inside.
But Dad closed it.
I asked him during counseling.
“Why?”
He looked ashamed.
“Kelsey said you needed to stay there long enough for the relatives to see.”
My stomach tightened.
“For what?”
“She thought we could turn it into a joke.”
I stared.
Dad continued.
“She said when everyone arrived, we’d open it and say you volunteered to replace Theo in the picture.”
“You were going to film that too?”
“Yes.”
My hands went cold.
So even my punishment had been scheduled as content.
“What if I cried?”
Dad closed his eyes.
“That probably would’ve made the video more valuable.”
The counselor interrupted.
“Derek.”
“No.”
Dad shook his head.
“She deserves the full answer.”
Then he looked at me.
“I closed the gate because by then I was thinking like a producer before I was thinking like your father.”
That sentence became more important than any apology.
Because it was true.
He had not become evil.
He had let a role swallow another role.
Money.
Audience.
Validation.
None excused him.
But understanding the mechanism helped me know what had to change.
Dad ended the channel.
Not paused.
Ended.
He dissolved the company he owned with Kelsey.
His share of remaining revenue connected to videos featuring Theo or me was placed into court-supervised accounts after legal expenses and restitution were handled.
Some videos disappeared permanently.
Others remained archived only where needed for legal reasons.
Kelsey fought the shutdown.
Dad did not.
May you like
That mattered.
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