Chapter 3 - THE DRAWING IN THE COUNSELOR’S OFFICE
Rachel didn’t answer.
She didn’t know.
By 9:40 that morning, she did.
Monroe Elementary called while Rachel was sitting in the parking lot of the dental clinic where she worked three days a week.
The school counselor, Denise Walker, asked her to come in.
Daniel had already called twice.
Rachel declined both calls.
Grace sat in Denise’s office with her hands folded under her thighs.
On the desk lay a composition notebook Rachel had bought in August for fifth-grade science.
Grace had used the back pages for something else.
Thirty-one pencil marks filled two sheets.
Some had dates.
Some had tiny circles around them.
Beside one mark Grace had drawn a bowl.
Denise spoke carefully.
“Grace told me these are mornings when her father made you kneel.”
Rachel felt shame rise before anger.
She hated herself for that.
“Yes.”
Grace looked up.
“Mom told me to count when Dad got scary.”
Denise’s eyes moved to Rachel.
There it was—the mistake Rachel had made.
She had known enough to count.
Not enough to leave.
“I thought if I could see whether it was getting worse…” Rachel stopped.
Grace finished for her.
“It was.”
Denise didn’t make promises she couldn’t keep. She explained that she had to document what Grace had reported and consult the school’s safeguarding procedures because two children were living in a home where physical violence was occurring.
She also gave Rachel the number for a domestic-violence advocacy program in Green County.
Rachel called from the parking lot.
Daniel kept texting.
WHERE ARE MY GIRLS?
DON’T TURN THIS INTO SOMETHING IT ISN’T.
Then:
I never made you swallow anything.
Rachel stared at that message.
She had never accused him by text of making her swallow anything.
He had supplied the detail himself.
Rachel took screenshots.
Then she called her supervisor.
“I need the rest of the day.”
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For the first time in years, she wasn’t planning how to calm Daniel down.
She was planning how to leave before he came home.
