Chapter 3
Madison tried to leave when I called 911.
She grabbed her purse from the side table and moved toward the hallway.
Lily flinched when she passed.
I saw it.
So did Daniel.
He still said nothing.
I stepped between Madison and the door.
“You are staying until police arrive.”
She laughed.
“You can’t hold me here.”
“No. But the doorbell camera can show you running after putting hands on my daughter.”
Her smile disappeared.
Daniel said, “Emily, stop escalating.”
I turned on him.
“She hurt Lily.”
“She was trying to help.”
“She said she was the mother in this house.”
Daniel looked away.
That was the answer.
Madison had not invented the sentence.
She had been promised it.
I took photos.
The red marks on Lily’s wrist.
The backpack.
The medicine.
The court form.
The folded pajamas.
The stuffed bunny.
Madison sitting on the edge of my sofa with my daughter’s fear still fresh in the room.
Daniel standing beside her like a bodyguard.
When the dispatcher asked if anyone was injured, my voice cracked.
“My daughter has marks on her wrist. The woman who made them is still here.”
Lily pressed her face into my side.
“Mommy, am I in trouble?”
“No, baby.”
“Daddy said I had to go be good at Madison’s.”
The phone nearly slipped from my hand.
I looked at Daniel.
“You were taking her to Madison’s?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
May you like
Only for a second.
But guilt does not need long.
