“I’m asking because I want to understand what happened.”
“No, you’re asking because you want names. You want to go after them.”
I wanted to tell her that she was wrong.
I wanted to promise that I would handle everything perfectly.
But I couldn’t honestly make either promise.
I knew myself. I knew how quickly I would become furious if I saw the children who had hurt my daughter.
So I forced myself to take a breath.
“All right,” I said. “I’m angry. I won’t pretend I’m not. But I’m listening.”
Emily looked at me uncertainly.
She had more to say.
And what came next was the part that truly broke my heart.
“On Tuesday morning, I threw up before the bus came.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“I felt sick. I couldn’t breathe properly. I kept thinking about going into that classroom and hearing them laugh again.”
