“You also said,” Maya added, “that if I made you angry, you would have a heart attack, and it would be my fault.” Laura closed her eyes in disgust.

Ryan muttered a curse under his breath.

I pulled out the last documents.

“Why did you change my phone number in the school’s system, Mom?” “It was a typo!” “And why,” I said, holding up Maya’s cracked phone, “did you give her the exact same typo, for my contact, in her phone?” Evelyn had no answer.

“For five years,” I said, “my daughter sent messages to a dead number, believing her father was ignoring her.

And every time I called you to ask how she was, you told me she was busy, that she didn’t want to talk, that she was being rebellious.” “She needed discipline!” “Is discipline,” I asked, “making a little girl believe her own father does not love her?” “Children need to fear authority to grow up right!” she shouted.