The video was still on his phone when they confiscated it.
Forty-seven seconds. That’s all it took.
Forty-seven seconds of my father whipping a child while his wife and daughter restrained her mother.
The officers who watched it didn’t say a word. But their eyes said everything.
Charges came swiftly.
Felony child abuse. Two counts of aiding and abetting.
Derek got six months and a fine for obstruction. Vanessa and my mother faced trial as accomplices. My father — the man who once promised to protect me — faced up to ten years.
When the footage played, my father didn’t even flinch — not until the sound of Lily’s sobs filled the room. That broke him. His jaw tightened, his eyes darted toward me, and for the first time in my life, he looked small.
Vanessa cried when the verdict came down. My mother looked at me as if I had ruined her life.
Maybe I had.
Maybe justice was ruin.
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