This is a five-year-old.

I waited until I left the house.

That decision still bothers me.

Should I have called from the bathroom?

Should I have refused to leave Chloe there for even one more minute?

Maybe.

But in that moment, I had a disclosure involving her father, a mother who seemed frightened by my conversation with the child, and no idea whether confrontation would make Chloe safer or more vulnerable.

At the front door, Chloe hugged me around the waist.