“He just lost his temper,” she said.

“It happened so fast, Dad.

He’s never done that before.”

I went and got a pair of my wool socks and knelt down and put them on her feet, one and then the other.

Her wrists had a band of bruising on them.

Both of them.

I put the afghan back over her hands.

We got to Hartwell County Hospital at twenty past three.