She had not wandered.

She had not misbehaved.

She had been silenced, deliberately, by her own father, because a five-year-old’s honesty was a threat to his plan to steal her.

He had locked my child in the dark not out of neglect, but out of strategy.

And a man who will do that to a child to protect a scheme has told you exactly who he is, and what has to happen next.

I stood up from Ivan’s table.