Daniel Comes Home
When Daniel finally arrived home, I instantly regretted my silence.
“Where’s my girl?” he called out, his voice full of warmth and love. “I want to see the hats! Did you finish the last one while I was away?”
Emma had been watching TV, but the moment she heard the word “hats,” she burst into tears.
Daniel’s face dropped. “Emma, what’s wrong?”
I led him back to the kitchen, out of Emma’s earshot, and told him everything.
As I spoke, his expression went from the tired, loving confusion of a returning traveler to a look of utter horror, then to a trembling, dangerous rage I had never seen in him before.
“I don’t even know what she did with them!” I finished. “I looked in the trash, but they weren’t there. She must have taken them somewhere.”
He went straight back to Emma, sat, and put his arm around her. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here, but I promise you — Grandma is never hurting you again. Never.”
He gently kissed her forehead, then stood and picked up the car keys he’d dropped on the hall table only a few minutes ago.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
