“That is literally my job.”
Lily looked at me.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Was it good?”
I thought about the frightened girl pressed against her bedroom wall.
The girl who had barely been able to whisper three words.
Check her purse.
Now she had stood in front of an entire classroom and spoken without anyone telling her what she was allowed to say.
“Yeah,” I said.
“It was good.”
She smiled.
Then she ran ahead toward the car.
Claire slipped her hand into mine.
We watched our daughter go.
And for the first time, when I remembered that afternoon, I didn’t hear Marlene’s voice.
I heard Lily’s.
Clear.
Steady.
Unhidden.
And nobody was covering her mouth anymore.
