The next morning, Daniel called a child specialist.
A therapist.
When he told Lily, she tensed up immediately.
“I don’t want to go,” she said.
“I am not sick.”
“I don’t need that.”
Daniel knelt in front of her.
“It’s not because you’re sick,” she explained calmly.
“It’s because what you went through was very difficult.”
Lily shook her head.
“If I speak… she’s going to get angry.”
Those words hit him hard.
Vanessa was no longer there.
But their fear did.
That was the real enemy.
Daniel took a deep breath.
This was the moment.
I could insist…
or he could back away so as not to make her uncomfortable.
But if I backed down, I would also be choosing silence.
And silence was what allowed everything before.
“You are not in danger,” she said firmly, but gently.
“No one is going to hurt you for telling the truth.”
Lily looked him directly in the eyes for the first time.
“Really?” he asked.
