He also recommended me not to talk to Vanessa, Robert or Diane without documenting everything.
He used clean words.
Registration.
Report.
Follow-up.
Assessment.
Clean words sounded weird after such a dirty afternoon.
Then I made the call that would change everything.
My dad answered the second tone.
He was a man who didn’t raise his voice unless the house was setting himself on fire.
That day he didn’t even say full hello.
He only listened to my breathing and asked, “Where are you?”
I told him the name of the hospital.
I told her Lily was burned.
I told him who had.
Then I looked at Ethan, looked at the social worker, looked at the form on the table, and whispered, “Tomorrow, we ended them.”
My dad didn’t ask if he was overdoing it.
He didn’t tell me to think about family.
He didn’t tell me to calm down.
