Chapter 7

What Corinne told me later about the bathroom is this.

She found Sadie in the girls’ room near the gym, hiding in the last stall with her feet up on the toilet so no one would see her. Corinne knelt on the tile and called her name. Sadie would not answer. Corinne pushed the door open and saw her daughter curled against the wall, red cardigan bunched up, sleeve pulled back.

The bruise on her forearm was yellow-green at the edges and purple in the center. Four small marks, like fingers, pressed into the soft part of her arm.

Corinne reached for her. Sadie flinched so hard she hit the wall.

“I’m sorry,” Corinne whispered. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry.”

Sadie looked at her. Her eyes were dry. That was the worst part. She was not crying. She was waiting.

Corinne asked the question she had been avoiding for months.

“Did he lock you in?”

Sadie did not speak. She nodded once.

“In the closet?”

Another nod.

“Did he blow the whistle?”

Sadie’s chin trembled. She nodded again.

Corinne covered her mouth with both hands. She thought about the drawing under the lining of her purse. She thought about the night Sadie whispered “whistle” in her sleep. She thought about every time she had told herself that Lyle was just strict, that Sadie was exaggerating, that if she left she would lose her job and her house and her daughter.

“I’m going to fix this,” she said.

Sadie’s eyes widened. She shook her head.

“I know,” Corinne said. “I’m scared too. But I’m not leaving you with him.”

She helped Sadie stand. She fixed her cardigan. She walked her to the office and asked the school secretary to keep her there. Then she went back to the gym.

Lyle saw her coming. His smile flickered, just for a second. Corinne kept walking. She passed the folding chairs. She passed the water fountain. She stepped up to the microphone.

“I need to change my testimony,” she said.

Harris looked up. Lyle’s face went still.

“I lied,” Corinne said. “I want to tell the truth.”