You do not need a monster to nearly destroy the people you love.

You need someone who wants money more than he cares about anyone in his way, and the world is not short of those, and one of them had married into my daughter’s life while I stood politely to the side trying not to make waves.

Chapter 12 — Maya’s Account

A woman named Clara came to the hospital in the late afternoon — a child advocate, trained for exactly this, gentle in a way that seemed to lower the temperature of the whole room.

She did not rush my daughter.

She sat, and she was warm, and slowly, in her own time, Maya began to talk, and I held her hand and made myself stay quiet and just be a warm still thing beside her while she said the hardest words she’d ever had to say.