“Did he recognize me as her mother?”
“Yes.”
“Then he must have understood what I would think.”
Mrs. Shaw nodded sympathetically.
“He understood that you would be upset.”
I looked again at the frozen picture.
Frank leaned forward in the driver’s seat, keeping one hand near the radio.
His expression seemed frightened.
Somehow, I hadn’t recognized it earlier.
“Was he frigh.ten.ed?” I asked.
Mrs. Shaw rested her folded hands on the tabletop.
“He told me that he was.”
A wave of emotion rose in my chest.
For nearly twenty-four hours, I’d remembered Frank’s expression as evidence of his harshness.
Now I finally understood what I’d witnessed.
He had been frigh.ten.ed as well.
And unlike me, he had recognized the possible danger before it was too late.
Chapter 6 — The Reason My Daughter Cried
That evening, Ellie sat on her bedroom carpet, carefully sorting her markers according to color.
