I looked at him.
For fifteen years, I had believed that the most important thing Curtis and I shared was our daughter. We had argued about money, parenting, and all the ordinary pressures of marriage, but I had never imagined he would look at our child suffering and simply refuse to help her.
That night, something inside me changed.
I helped Sadie into bed and stayed beside her until she finally fell asleep.
The next morning, I told Curtis I was taking her to buy sneakers.
“Nothing expensive,” he said.
I nodded.
Then I drove straight to St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Dublin, Ohio.
Sadie noticed when I missed the turn toward the shopping center.
“Mom?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“That’s not where the shoe store is.”
“I know.”
She stared at me.
“Dad’s going to be angry.”
“Then he’ll be angry at me.”
“But he said I was fine.”
I reached across the console and squeezed her hand.
