My daughter had been starving, and isolated, and lied about, and when she had done nothing wrong at all, the one person who was supposed to protect her from anywhere in the world had called her long-distance to scream at her for a crime she did not commit.

I had not been absent.

I had been worse than absent.

I had been a weapon, pointed at my own child, by the very person starving her.

Chapter 6 — She Took a Step Back

We walked into the study hall together.

And when Maya looked up and saw me standing in the doorway, she dropped her pencil.

She did not run to me.