He Left Our Daughter To Drown But I Saved The Footage Chapter 19
Maisie lifted her head and tugged me toward an easel.
“Mom, look what I painted today.”
On the paper was a lovely two-story apartment building with flowers on the windowsill. Two figures stood at the door, holding hands.
Above the roof, she had written a sentence:
“Mom and me, our home.”
I looked at it for a long time.
Her drawings used to always have a father bird flying away.
Later, she started coloring that bird black.
This time, the sky was empty.
And clear.
That evening, as we locked up the studio, Maisie skipped ahead with her art portfolio on her back, turning every few steps to call back to me.
“Mom, hurry up!”
The moment I caught up, she grabbed my hand.
“Can we have Hawaiian pizza for dinner? With extra pineapple.”
“We had pizza yesterday.”
“But yesterday’s didn’t have extra pineapple.” She swung our joined hands. “So today we need two extra servings to make up for it.”
I put on a stern face.
“One serving, max.”
“Two.”
“One and a half.”
Her eyes lit up.
“Deal!”
I laughed and nodded, and she let out a little cheer.
She could pout now, and bargain, and state her needs without apology.
She could finally just be a child.
The crosswalk light ahead turned green.
Maisie squeezed my hand as we walked toward the warm lights of home.
Then my phone buzzed in my pocket.
An email from my lawyer with a new court filing.
Evan was petitioning for an early reinstatement of his supervised visitation rights.
The motion’s opening line read:
“I have accepted my punishment. My daughter should now give me a chance to make amends.”