Bonnie tried to step in again, her voice shrill. “Sawyer, you need to think about what this will do to the family name and your reputation.”

“My daughter has already paid the price for your silence. Now it’s your turn to deal with the consequences,” he said, turning his back on them.

The legal proceedings were brutal, but there was no escaping the mountain of evidence. The court granted temporary custody to Sawyer and a strict supervised-visitation schedule for Carolina, contingent on consistent therapy.

Carolina’s siblings and friends were horrified by the scandal, but for the first time, Sawyer didn’t care what they thought. Jenna, his sister, stood by him the entire time.

“You aren’t destroying a family, Sawyer,” she reminded him. “You’re saving a child from a broken home.”

Sawyer moved into a small, bright apartment near the city park, far from the house that had held so much trauma. Gracie chose yellow curtains, stuck glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, and kept her brown bear on her pillow as her silent protector.