“You’re humiliating me.”
“Ruby is manipulating you.”
“Come back immediately.”
Then one message caught my attention.
“Don’t let Ruby tell the doctor anything.”
I stared at the screen.
My fingers went cold.
Why would Lucinda care what a doctor heard?
I took screenshots.
Then I called my older sister, Denise.
She answered immediately.
“Daniel?”
Her voice sounded worried.
“I saw pictures from the party. What happened?”
I swallowed.
“Lucinda hurt Ruby.”
Silence.
Then Denise whispered:
“What?”
I explained everything.
The shove against the brace.
The fall.
The injured leg.
The cut strap.
By the time I finished, Denise was crying.
“Oh, Daniel.”
I covered my face.
“I didn’t know.”
Her voice hardened.
“I’m coming.”
“It’s late.”
“I don’t care.”
She paused.
“Is Ruby safe?”
I looked at my sleeping daughter.
“Yes.”
“Then keep her that way.”
Forty minutes later, Denise arrived at the hospital.
She hugged me tightly.
Then she stood beside Ruby’s bed.
My sister’s eyes filled.
“That poor baby.”
I looked down.
“I failed her.”
Denise turned sharply.
“You didn’t cause this.”
“But I brought Lucinda into our lives.”
She took my shoulders.
“Then you make sure she never gets another chance to hurt Ruby.”
I nodded.
“I will.”
Denise looked toward the door.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
I frowned.
“What?”
She hesitated.
“I’ve been worried about Lucinda for months.”
My heart sank.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I tried.”
I stared at her.
She continued.
“Remember Christmas? When I told you Ruby seemed unusually quiet?”
I remembered.
I had brushed it aside.
I told Denise that Ruby was still adjusting to my engagement.
Denise swallowed.
“Ruby told me she wasn’t allowed to sit beside you when Lucinda was home.”
I felt sick.
“What?”
“She said Lucinda called her a clingy little baby.”
My hands began shaking.
“Why didn’t Ruby tell me?”
Denise looked heartbroken.
“She said she didn’t want to ruin your happiness.”
I sat down hard.
My daughter had been protecting my feelings.
While I was supposed to be protecting her.
Then Denise opened her handbag.
“I brought something.”
She removed a small notebook.
A pink notebook decorated with stars.
I recognized it.
Ruby’s diary.
Denise looked at me.
“She left this at my house last weekend.”
I stared at it.
“Did you read it?”
“Only the page that was open when I picked it up.”
She swallowed.
“Daniel, I think you need to see it.”
I opened the notebook carefully.
The handwriting was uneven.
Large letters.
Some words misspelled.
But the sentence was clear.
“Lucinda says Daddy will stop loving me if I keep being bad.”
My chest tightened.
I turned the page.
Another entry.
“She says my hurt leg makes me ugly.”
I covered my mouth.
Then I reached the final page Denise had marked.
The date was from three days earlier.
And beneath a drawing of a small girl crying, Ruby had written:
“Lucinda said she has a plan to make Daddy send me away.”
I stared at the words.
My heart began pounding.
Send her away?
Where?
And why?
Then I noticed another sentence written beneath the drawing.
“She said the doctor won’t believe me after Friday.”
I looked at the date.
Friday.
The day of the party.
May you like
The day Lucinda had cut Ruby’s brace.
And suddenly, I knew I needed to find out what else she had planned.
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