Right before she closed her eyes, she whispered:
“You believe me, right, Dad?”
I swallowed hard.
“Every word, sweetheart.”
The next morning, an officer came to take our statement.
He was kind—at first.
Until he heard the name.
“Daniel Carter?” he repeated, his tone shifting. “Are you sure? He’s… very well respected. We have to be careful with accusations like that.”
Something inside me burned.
A few hours later, the school released a statement: the principal would remain in his position “while the matter was being reviewed.”
That’s when it hit me.
To them, a man’s reputation mattered more than the bruises on my daughter’s body.
And I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was only the beginning of something much bigger.