Patricia approached slowly. “What did I tell you about sitting here?” she snapped – mynraa

I looked at Mara.

“I didn’t want them cornered upstairs,” she said.

Prepared. Not dramatic. Practical. The kind of plan people make when they know danger shows up on a schedule.

I called the child therapist who’d worked with the girls after my divorce. Then I called my lawyer. Then I called the detective I funded through one of our nonprofit boards and asked what needed to be preserved before anyone said this was just a family dispute.

Every answer sounded clinical. Save the phone. Export the camera footage. Photograph the wrist. Limit contact. Document everything.

So I did.