You cannot lie — she’d already seen too much, and lying would only teach her not to trust her own eyes, which is the exact thing her grandmother had spent years doing to me.
But you cannot hand a child the whole weight of it either.
“I’m taking care of everything, sweetheart,” I said.
“That’s my job, and I’m doing it.
All I need from you is to trust me and stay safe.
Can you do that?”