Chapter 2

Gavin finally came home at eight that night.

The first thing he did wasn't check on Sadie.

Instead, he set a pink shopping bag on the console table by the door and carefully straightened it.

I glanced at it.

Inside was a nicely packaged Barbie set. The receipt was still in the bag, showing a price of just over sixty dollars.

Sadie didn't like Barbies.

She liked dinosaurs and LEGO sets. She'd told him that more times than I could count.

"Who's that for?"

He kicked off his shoes without looking up.

"Millie's birthday is next week. I happened to see it while I was out, so I picked it up."

Just happened to pick it up.

He could remember someone else's child's birthday, what she liked, even what size she wore.

Yet somehow he'd forgotten that his own daughter had been home alone for three days, injured and sick.

I said nothing.

I plugged the flash drive into the TV and pressed play.

The footage filled the sixty-five-inch screen.

The first night.

Sadie was curled up in the corner of the couch watching cartoons, her eyelids growing heavier by the second. Little by little, she slid lower until she slipped off the couch and fell to the floor.

Her head hit the leg of the coffee table. She curled up in pain, her mouth open, but forced herself not to cry.

Then she pushed herself back up, touched the scrape on her chin, hugged a pillow to her chest, and curled up on the cold floor to sleep.

The next morning.

She stood on a step stool, reaching for the kettle in the kitchen.

The kettle was too heavy for her. It tipped over, spilling hot water across the table and onto her right hand. Sadie jerked her hand back and fell backward onto the floor.

The back of her hand quickly turned red. Tears welled in her eyes, but she still didn't cry.

She ran to the bathroom on her own and held her hand under the faucet for a long, long time.

The third day.

Her cheeks were flushed with fever as she sat on the couch holding a thermometer.

Then she looked straight at the security camera and gave it a weak little smile.

"I think Mommy can see me. I'm a little warm, but I'm okay. You don't have to worry."

After that, she rummaged through the medicine cabinet. Her burned hand trembled as she split a fever-reducer tablet in half and swallowed it.

The living room was deathly quiet.

My heart pounded like a drum in my ears.

Gavin's expression finally changed.

But only for a second.

"I didn't know Denise wasn't coming," he said, his voice strained. "It was an accident."

Then he quickly regained his usual composure.

"An accident?" I turned to him. "You didn't come home for three days. You didn't call once. You didn't even ask about her. Your 'accident' could have cost your daughter her life.

"Her burn is already infected. Did you see that? Did you see the bruise on her face? Did you know she had a fever over 102 degrees and had to take medicine by herself?"

He frowned.

"Can you stop getting so worked up? She's fine now, isn't she? I didn't do it on purpose.

"And Sadie should be more independent anyway. Look at Millie. She's even younger, and Celeste raised her on her own. She's so much easier to take care of."

Millie again.

Celeste again.

The anger burning in my chest made my whole body shake.

"Gavin, if it had been Millie, could you have let her go through those three days alone?"

His mouth opened.

But nothing came out.

Because the answer was obvious.

He wouldn't.

He never would have let Millie go through any of that.

But Sadie?

Apparently, she was the one he was willing to put through it.

I turned off the TV, pulled out the flash drive, and closed my hand around it.

"I'm tired. I'm staying with Sadie tonight."

Behind me, Gavin called out, "Tessa, what do you want from me? I told you it was a misunderstanding. Are you really going to keep dragging this out?"

I didn't turn around.

I went into the bedroom and locked the door behind me.

Sadie was already asleep.

She was curled up under the covers, her injured hand resting beside her pillow. Even in her sleep, she instinctively guarded it.

I lay down beside her and gently pulled her into my arms.

I cried silently until my pillow was soaked.