Chapter 3: The Trial
Maisie spent four days in the children's hospital.
Doctors told me we had arrived just in time.
Her eyesight would recover.
When I heard those words, my knees gave out.
I cried harder than I had the night of the attack.
Months later, the courtroom was overflowing.
Reporters lined every bench.
The prosecutor played the security footage on a giant screen.
No one spoke.
The jury watched April smile while hurting a five-year-old child.
They watched my mother smash the telephone.
They watched my father lock the front door and refuse medical care.
Their defense attorney argued that it was "a family misunderstanding."
The prosecutor calmly placed the broken landline on the evidence table.
"A misunderstanding," she repeated.
"Children don't receive chemical burns because of misunderstandings."
One by one, the verdicts were read.
April—Guilty of aggravated assault on a child.
Mother—Guilty of child endangerment and obstruction of emergency medical care.
Father—Guilty of unlawful imprisonment and obstruction.
Each sentence echoed through the silent courtroom.
When the judge finished, my father looked at me for the first time.
"You've destroyed this family."
I met his eyes.
May you like
"No."
"You did that the night you chose to protect your cruelty instead of your granddaughter."
