Chapter 1
The moment I walked into the house, I saw my wife swing a wooden cane into my four-year-old daughter’s prosthetic leg, and Lily collapsed to the floor screaming.
For one second, I couldn’t move.
Then Lily looked up at me with tears pouring down her face.
“Daddy!”
I dropped my work bag and ran across the living room.
My wife, Amanda, froze with the cane still in her hand.
“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted.
“She was throwing another tantrum,” Amanda snapped.
Lily wrapped both arms around my neck and buried her face against my chest.
“She hit my leg, Daddy.”
I looked down and saw a fresh crack near the side of Lily’s prosthetic.
That leg had taken months of fittings after the car accident that changed her life.
Amanda knew exactly how important it was.
“She wouldn’t listen,” Amanda said. “I barely touched it.”
“Barely?”
I pointed at the broken plastic.
Amanda rolled her eyes.
“You baby her because she’s disabled.”
My stomach turned.
Lily suddenly whispered, “Daddy, please don’t leave me alone with her again.”
The room went completely silent.
I looked at my daughter.
“What do you mean again?”
Amanda immediately stepped toward us.
“She’s four, Michael. She makes things up.”
Lily started shaking harder.
Then she pulled up the sleeve of her Christmas sweater.
There were several dark marks on her little arm.
I stared at Amanda.
Her face changed.
“Those are from daycare.”
“Daycare has been closed for Christmas break since last Friday.”
Amanda opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
I picked Lily up and reached for my phone.
Amanda suddenly blocked the front door.
“You’re not taking her anywhere.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Then Lily leaned close to my ear.
“There’s something under my bed, Daddy.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“A phone.”
Amanda went white.
Lily pointed toward the hallway.
“I recorded her because Grandma told me nobody would believe me.”
Amanda lunged toward Lily’s bedroom.
But I got there first.
I dropped to my knees, reached beneath the bed, and pulled out an old phone I hadn’t seen in almost a year.
The screen lit up.
There were seventeen videos.
May you like
And the first thumbnail showed Amanda standing over Lily while someone else watched from the doorway.
Someone I recognized immediately.
