People hurried past the mouth of the alley, their heads tucked under umbrellas, deliberately looking away. To them, she was just another piece of urban decay. Trash.
But this was my daughter. My brilliant, gentle girl. The same child who used to fall asleep on my shoulder during thunderstorms, smelling of vanilla shampoo and crayons. The girl who graduated top of her class, who laughed with her whole body.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice a low, ragged rasp.
She tried to push herself up, wincing as her stiff joints protested. “I… I didn’t want you to see me like this. I was going to figure it out, Dad. I swear.”
“Stop,” I commanded gently, pulling my own dry coat off and wrapping it around her shivering frame. “Just tell me.”
Her bottom lip trembled, and a tear cut a clean track down her dirty cheek. “Mark sold the house.”
I went perfectly still. The cold rain hitting my back suddenly felt like pinpricks of fire. “The house?” I asked slowly. “The house I helped you buy? The one in your name?”
She nodded, a pathetic, broken motion. “He forged my signature on the quitclaim deed. He told the notary we were doing a rapid transfer for tax purposes. Said the money from the sale was going to clear our debts. And then… then he just disappeared.” Her voice hitched, breaking into a dry, hollow sob. “Months later, I found out he was living downtown. With Vanessa. His assistant.”
Vanessa. The name tasted like ash in my mouth.
“He bought a penthouse,” Anna continued, the words spilling out like a hemorrhage. “New cars. Constant parties. When I finally tracked him down and confronted him, he called the police. He told them, he told our friends, he told everyone that I was unstable. That I was an addict. That I had abandoned him and Emma.”
My hands, resting on my knees, slowly curled into tight fists. My knuckles popped in the cold air.
Anna looked away, staring at a puddle reflecting the neon glow of the pharmacy sign. “I tried to fight, Dad. I went to three different lawyers. No one believed me. Or they wanted retainers I didn’t have. Mark had all the documents. He had witnesses who lied for him. He had all the money from the sale. He cornered me outside a shelter last month and told me that if I fought him in court, he’d use his lawyers to make sure I was committed. He’d make sure I never saw Emma again.”
