The officers had everyone stay put while they documented the scene.

My mother muttered that this was a ridiculous circus invented by a dramatic daughter-in-law.

“Ma’am,” the lead officer said, flat and firm, “there are documented, severe injuries on your daughter-in-law, and your granddaughter has described recordings and a pattern of harm.

Stop minimizing what happened in this home.” The paramedics dressed Aurora’s wrists properly and checked me over — I was shaken but unhurt.

It was Aurora and Elodie who carried the year on their bodies, and I who had been, in every way that counted, absent from it.

Chapter 21 — The Old Phone