Chapter 5
There was one night that Richard would never forget.
It happened about six months before the drawing incident.
Chloe had been sick with a fever. She was only six years old at the time. Richard had been away on a business trip, so Elena was supposed to take care of her.
When Richard came home late that night, he found Chloe sleeping on the cold floor outside their bedroom door. She was wrapped in a thin blanket, her cheeks flushed with fever, and tears had dried on her face.
Elena was inside the bedroom, watching television with the volume turned up high.
When Richard asked her why Chloe was sleeping on the floor, Elena had simply shrugged.
“She was being difficult. She kept asking for you, so I told her to wait outside until she learned to behave.”
Richard had never felt such rage before.
He had picked Chloe up carefully and carried her to her own room. He spent the entire night by her bedside, cooling her forehead with a damp cloth and whispering apologies she was too sick to hear.
The next morning, when Chloe woke up, she looked at her father with tired eyes and said something that broke his heart.
“It’s okay, Daddy. I know you’re busy. I won’t bother you anymore.”
From that day on, Chloe stopped asking for things.
She stopped running to Richard when she was sad or scared. She stopped showing him her drawings. She stopped smiling as brightly as she used to.
Richard had noticed the change, but he had told himself it was just a phase. He told himself that Chloe was growing up and becoming more independent.
But deep down, he had known the truth.
His daughter was slowly shutting down because she no longer felt safe in her own home.
And he had allowed it to happen.
That guilt had been eating at him for months.
When Chloe made that drawing and Elena threw it away, something inside Richard finally snapped.
He could no longer pretend that everything was fine.
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He could no longer choose his marriage over his daughter.
It was time to make things right.
