“Come get your worthless daughter and take her back,” my mother-in-law shouted my father as I lay broken at the bottom of the stairs after my husband shoved me down. “Your family will answer for it if she has even a scratch,” was the sole warning Dad offered her. They had no notion who my father really was, so they made fun of him.

“Didn’t they bring this mess on themselves?” Dad said coolly, putting his garden shears down.

I glanced down at Maya, happily colouring in a brand new drawing of our future home.

This time she had bright clear crayons for the big open windows.

“Why are the windows clear this time, my sweet girl?” ‘Please?’ I said to her softly.

Maya looked up at me with her shiny bright eyes and a beautiful smile.

“Because if the windows are clear we can see the entire world and no one will ever be able to hide any secrets from us any more,” she answered wisely.

I drew my daughter close to my heart and looked at my father, and a deep and profound peace filled my soul.

All the painful shadows of the past were gone.

My daughter was safe, the truth was out, and we were home at last.

THE END