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I wait until we’re all alone again and then I sneak back to her, mostly because I’m afraid maybe he did kill her. But she’s still alive and I rub her back and stroke her hair like she always did to me.

“Rosie,” she says. “You can’t be here.”

“No one else is here,” I say. “It’s okay. Are you hungry? I can find something. Everything here tastes bad, but I don’t want you to look the same as Aunt April when Dad brought her here.”

“Oh God.” Tears spill from her eyes, and I wonder if I did something wrong. Then she says, “I’m so sorry you had to see her like that, honey. I didn’t know. As soon as I found out, I told your father he needed to bring her to me, and he did, but then?—”

I put my hand on top of her head and make a “shhh” noise like she used to do to me when I cried.

“Everything went wrong,” she says, and she sounds like a squeaky toy.

I do the “shhh” thing again until she seems calmer.

“Rosie, listen to me.” Her eyes are super serious. “This is very important. I need you to really listen and do what I say. If you have a chance to leave here, I want you to do it. Get away. Run. Go to the police. They’re not the people your dad thinks they are. They will help you. I promise that they will. You need to tell them everything you know, no matter what.”

I nod and nod even though the things she’s saying are making my heart feel like it’s going too fast.

“Do you understand me?” she keeps going.

“Y-yes.”

“And this is really important, too. If you have to, leave me here. It doesn’t matter what happens to me, as long as you get away.”

“No, I can’t?—”

We are looking at each other so hard and talking about so many important things that neither of us hears him. This time, he pulls my hair.

“What did I tell you would happen if you went near her again?”