Cam: Sure, but he did it because he was out of options. Not just broke but buried in debt, and unable to get treatment for his dying child. So you tell me. What else was he supposed to do?

Juanita: I don’t know. Certainly not hold a mother and two small children for ransom. Certainly not break a woman’s cheek.

Cam: Still. There’s something inherently wrong with a system that would allow a girl to die simply because her father can’t afford drugs that every other Western country would have given her for free. Every single societal safeguard that was meant to catch Sebastian failed. Every single one of his options was snatched away.

Juanita: [sitting back in chair] Sebastian held your family at gunpoint. He tied them to a chair and threatened their lives. He physically hurt your wife and traumatized your children, all because he carried so much hatred for you. Because he wanted revenge.

Cam: I know, and I think about those things a lot. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get flashes of Jade’s mangled face or Beatrix waving around that gun. I have to relive those awful moments knowing they happened because of me, because of things I did. But at the end of the day, I keep coming back to the fact that Sebastian acted not for himself, but for a child. His child. The one he loved the same way I love Beatrix and Baxter, with every inch of my heart. I don’t know, Juanita, the answers don’t feel so black-and-white.

Juanita: You make it sound like you’ve forgiven him.

Cam: I don’t know about forgiveness exactly. Some pity and regret. Actually, scratch that. Lots of regret for what I did.

Juanita: But in the end, Sebastian got what he wanted. Gigi Long didn’t die. Thanks to those videos, people flooded GoFundMe campaigns with money. Hospitals and doctors stepped up with free medical care. Gigi got her lungs. Her doctors say she’s on track for a full recovery.

Cam: [scoffs] No thanks to Sebastian’s life insurance company, who refused to pay her a penny.

Juanita: Because he looked into a camera and announced to the entire world what he was about to do. He told his daughter where to find the insurance papers, and then he threatened police officers knowing they would retaliate. Life insurance policies carry an exclusion for suicide.

Cam: When you push a man to the edge of a cliff, you can’t get pissy when he jumps.

Juanita: Are you implying the insurance company made the wrong decision, that they should have honored Sebastian’s policy?

Cam: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Suicide by cop is not a thing. Or at least it shouldn’t be.