CHAPTER 4 — The Backyard Truth
I didn’t argue.
I went back outside.
To the kitchen.
To Sarah.
To Jamie.
They were still there.
Still waiting.
Sarah stood when she saw me.
Not fast.
Carefully.
Like she didn’t know if she was allowed to hope.
“I tried,” she whispered immediately. “I tried to stop them.”
I looked at her wrists.
Thin.
Bruised in places.
Not from violence only.
From exhaustion.
“How long?” I asked quietly.
She hesitated.
Then:
“After your second year away… everything changed.”
My chest tightened.
Jamie tugged my sleeve.
“Daddy… Grandma says we live here because we’re bad.”
My vision blurred.
I dropped to my knees again.
“No,” I said instantly. “No, listen to me. You did nothing wrong.”
Sarah shook her head.
“They told me if I complained, you’d stop sending money.”
That line hit differently.
May you like
Because it meant something worse than cruelty.
It meant planning.
