“I would sit down on the porch and listen to everything he had to say,” I told her softly.

“And then, together as a family, we’d decide what was best for our future.”

She smiled warmly and nodded, completely content with my answer.

A full year after the state investigation officially closed, I took all five of my daughters back up to the mountain cabin in Pine Ridge.

Leonard Ross had finished renovating the property, and he kindly invited us to spend a peaceful afternoon walking through the rooms and exploring the woods around it.

We found our old fishing rods stored safely in the shed, and we found the height chart we had carved into the wooden doorframe years ago.