I found my four-year-old hiding at her cousin’s birthday—then my nephew revealed why my sister took her into that bathroom
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Chapter 15 / 27
Chapter 15 - My mother calls it punishment
When I told Diane she would not be babysitting Grace alone for a while, she cried.
“You think I would hurt her?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“You saw someone hurting her and didn’t move.”
“I told Natalie to stop.”
“You stayed at the stairs.”
“I froze.”
“Then I can’t know you won’t freeze again.”
Diane looked devastated.
“You’re punishing me.”
“No.”
“It feels like punishment.”
“I believe you.”
She stared.
“What does that mean?”
“Something can hurt you without being designed to hurt you.”
That sentence would return.
She had taught us for years that any boundary causing another person pain was cruelty.
No.
May you like
Sometimes consequences hurt.
That does not make them revenge.
