Maya deserved daylight, explanations, and people who could be held accountable.

Your old life just found her.

For several seconds, I forgot how to breathe.

Maya was watching me from the hospital bed, her bruised little face half hidden beneath the pale blue blanket.

The monitors beside her beeped softly, steady and innocent, as if the world outside that room had not just cracked open beneath our feet.

“Dad?” she whispered.

I turned the phone face down.