She deserved better.
By spring, life had slowly returned to normal.
One afternoon, Claire and I took Lily to the park. She ran toward the swings with Bunny tucked under her arm.
“Push me, Mama!”
I gave her a gentle push.
She giggled, then noticed another little girl waiting.
“She can have a turn,” Lily announced, climbing down.
I watched her run back toward Claire, smiling.
For eleven years, after losing Peter and Rebecca, I’d believed loving someone again meant risking another terrible loss.
Maybe it did.
But love had also brought laughter back into my home and given a frightened little girl somewhere to belong.
That evening, I took the folder containing the five reports from my drawer.
I used to believe those families had looked at Lily and decided she wasn’t worth the trouble.
Now I knew the truth.
They hadn’t rejected her.
They had been frightened by a man who claimed to love her but refused to put her safety before his own wishes.
