I trusted my new wife to love my daughter—until I discovered where she had been forcing her to eat every night. / Chapter 7 / 20

Chapter 7 - Maya SpeaksThe child welfare officer’s name was Andrea Mills.

She had kind eyes and a voice so gentle that Maya did not hide from her.

We sat in the library, the only room Eleanor had not redecorated because I had forbidden it. Sarah’s books still lined the shelves. Her reading chair still faced the fireplace.

Maya sat in that chair wrapped in my jacket.

Andrea did not push.

She did not demand.

She simply asked, “Can you tell me what dinner is usually like?”

Maya looked at me first.

I nodded.

She swallowed.

“Eleanor eats in the dining room. Sometimes with friends. Sometimes with Daddy when he’s home. I eat after.”

“Where?”

Maya twisted the sleeve of my jacket.

“Pantry. Laundry room. Sometimes the stairs.”

Daniel wrote nothing down, but I knew he was recording every word in his mind.

Andrea asked, “Why not at the table?”

“Because I chew wrong.”

Eleanor made a sound of disgust from the doorway.

Andrea turned sharply. “Mrs. Sterling, you were asked to wait outside.”

“This is absurd.”

“Outside,” Andrea repeated.

For the first time since I had known her, Eleanor obeyed.

Maya watched her leave, then whispered faster, as if the words had been trapped too long.

“She said I smelled like old sadness. She said Daddy needed a real wife and real children. She said when she has a baby, I’ll have to be helpful or go away.”

I felt my chest tear open.

Andrea’s face changed, but her voice stayed calm.

“Did she ever hurt you?”

Maya hesitated.

Then she lifted her sleeve.

There were small bruises on her arm.

Finger marks.

Old ones fading yellow.

New ones purple.

I stood so quickly the chair behind me fell backward.

Daniel caught my arm.

“Richard,” he warned quietly.