As I continued to watch the footage, my heart pounded in my chest, both terrified of what I might see and desperate to uncover the truth. My husband looked up from his phone and called our daughter over. His tone was gentle, almost coaxing, which was a stark contrast to his behavior over the past month. She hesitated, her little body language conveying a mix of confusion and fear. Reluctantly, she approached him.
He picked her up, and for a moment, I thought I had imagined the tension. Perhaps I was overreacting, projecting my worries onto the situation. But then, he did something unexpected. He began speaking to her in a hushed tone, telling her a story. His voice was soft but serious, a far cry from the affectionate father he once was. The words were hard to make out, but I caught snippets of “mommy being busy” and “dad loves you very much.”
