We’ll arrange collection.”

I looked down at my jacket.

The drawing sat against my chest.

A five-year-old had taped the truth beneath a chair because hiding it in her bedroom did not feel safe.

And I understood something I would spend years trying to forget.

The chair had never been the real problem.

It was simply the place she thought someone might finally look.

PART 2 — THE DOCTOR WHO DIDN’T ASK HER TO PROVE IT

Chloe was taken to a children’s advocacy center affiliated with a pediatric hospital.

Not the ordinary emergency room.