Vanessa avoided jail but was ordered to complete parenting responsibility classes and provide a statement for Chloe’s therapist. None of them were allowed contact with Chloe unless a court approved it.
A year later, Chloe turned nine in our backyard under strings of yellow lights. She laughed when Daniel dropped the cake knife.
She wore the same pink headphones, but this time they rested around her neck, not over her ears.
That night, after everyone left, she handed me a drawing. It showed an airport, a plane, and a little girl holding her mother’s hand.
Under it, she had written: “Mom came back.”
I framed it the next morning.
