When we got there I saw exactly what I was afraid of. Lily was standing in the dirt. Dale was kneeling right in front of her. His hands were on her arms. Her face was wet. And there wasn’t another soul within 200 yards.
Marcus called the cops. I walked straight toward them. Dale saw me and stood up. He didn’t run. Didn’t flinch. Just put both hands in the air like he’d done this before.
The cops put him in cuffs in under two minutes.
My daughter didn’t speak to me for three days. Not one word. She wouldn’t eat. Wouldn’t go to school Monday. Wrote Dale’s name on her bedroom wall in marker.
On Wednesday she finally looked at me and said eight words I’ll never unhear.
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