Chương 9
“Who were you talking to?”
“I’m not doing this in front of your sister.”
“Then do it out here.”
Caroline followed.
“This conversation should probably wait.”
Daniel turned.
“You’ve told me twice not to ask questions, and every time I stop asking, somebody gives me a new reason to ask more.”
“I’m trying to protect the integrity of what each person remembers.”
“My daughter has marks on her arm.”
“And that is precisely why this needs to be handled carefully.”
Vanessa sat on the porch step.
She looked suddenly exhausted.
“I was talking to Dr. Patel.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My therapist.”
“You have a therapist?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“April.”
“You told me you were doing virtual physical therapy for your neck.”
“I lied.”
Mara muttered something behind the screen.
Daniel ignored it.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want you asking why I needed therapy.”
“Why did you?”
Vanessa rubbed both palms over her face.
“Because I was having trouble with Lily.”
Daniel laughed in disbelief.
“That’s what you call it?”
“I’m not saying what happened was okay.”
“What happened?”
“I lost my temper.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“Daniel, stop.”
“No.”
Caroline stepped forward.
“Daniel.”
He pointed at Vanessa.
“She can leave whenever she wants.”
Vanessa looked up.
“I grabbed her today.”
“I saw the mark.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
Vanessa’s eyes flicked toward Caroline.
The social worker said nothing.
“I grabbed her before.”
“How many times?”
“Maybe four.”
Daniel’s mouth went dry.
“Four.”
“Maybe five.”
Mara opened the door.
“You need to get off my property before I forget there are witnesses.”
“Mara,” Caroline said.
Vanessa stood.
“I never hit her with an object.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That is an unbelievably specific denial.”
“Because you saw the spoon.”
“You were holding it.”
“I slapped it against the counter.”
“Why?”
“Because I was angry.”
“At an eight-year-old.”
“Yes.”
The simple admission disarmed him more than another excuse would have.
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“Yes, Daniel, I was angry at an eight-year-old.”
She looked away.
“I have been angry at her for months, and I knew there was something wrong with how angry I was.”
The porch went quiet.
Daniel thought of every evening Vanessa had said she was tired, every closed bedroom door, every time she had volunteered to handle Lily because he had work to finish.
“Why?”
Vanessa looked at him again.
“That’s what I was trying to figure out.”
“By hurting her?”
“No.”
Her voice hardened.
“By seeing a therapist.”
“You were still hurting her.”
“I know.”
Daniel recoiled slightly.
He had expected denial.
The absence of it frightened him.
Caroline asked, “What did you mean when you said Daniel was starting to notice?”
Vanessa looked toward the old phone.
“You listened to it?”
“Not yet.”
“Then listen.”
Daniel unlocked the screen.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Because Lily shouldn’t hear it.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“She recorded it.”
“She left the phone in the laundry room.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I found the charger behind the dryer yesterday.”
Lily had said Vanessa did not know.
Daniel looked toward the upstairs window.
Vanessa saw the doubt on his face.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“What?”
“She lies.”
Mara opened the door fully.
“Get out.”
“I’m not saying that to excuse anything.”
“That is exactly what you’re doing.”
“No.”
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
“She lies because she’s scared, and sometimes she lies because she wants something, and sometimes she lies because she is eight.”
Daniel’s anger returned.
“You told her I would get sick of her.”
Vanessa went pale.
He saw the recording hit her before she answered.
“I said something like that.”
“You told my daughter I would leave her.”
“I told her you were exhausted.”
“You told her she was the reason.”
“I was cruel.”
Daniel had no response ready for a person who admitted the accusation.
Caroline said, “Vanessa, I’d like you to come with Aaron and speak somewhere private.”
Vanessa nodded.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“Listen to the recording.”
He held the phone tighter.
“Why?”
“Because I wasn’t talking about you noticing bruises.”
“What were you talking about?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“You won’t believe me if I tell you.”
“Try me.”
“I already tried.”
“When?”
“For months.”
Daniel stared at her.
She gave a small, miserable laugh.
“Every time I told you Lily was doing something strange, you thought I was criticizing your parenting.”
“You were criticizing my child.”
“Sometimes.”
Vanessa wiped beneath one eye.
“And sometimes I was scared.”
“Of Lily?”
“No.”
She looked toward the house.
“Of what was happening to her.”
Daniel felt something inside him shift.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Ask her why she started hiding food before I ever restricted anything.”
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
“You told me she did it for attention.”
“I was wrong.”
“What changed your mind?”
“She wasn’t eating it.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
“I found six bags of food under her bed.”
“So?”
“Most of it was expired.”
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“She wasn’t hoarding food because she was hungry.”
“Then why?”
“I asked Dr. Patel the same thing.”
Caroline intervened.
“That’s enough for now.”
Daniel barely heard her.
“What did he say?”
“She.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“She said children sometimes create emergency supplies when they’re afraid they may need to leave quickly.”
Daniel thought of the flashlight.
The twenty-dollar bill.
The locked backpack.
His daughter asking if they were coming back.
Vanessa continued.
“That’s when I started watching more closely.”
“Watching what?”
“Lily.”
“For what?”
“Things that didn’t fit.”
Daniel felt Caroline move beside him.
Vanessa looked at Rachel’s phone.
“The recording explains the first thing I found.”
“What first thing?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then she said, “A packed bag.”
Daniel almost shouted.
“You mean the backpack she has now?”
“No.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“This was in June.”
Daniel stared at her.
“It wasn’t Lily’s backpack.”
The porch light buzzed above them.
Caroline’s expression sharpened.
“Whose was it?”
Vanessa looked at Daniel.
May you like
“Yours.”
He felt the question before he could form it.
