Page 44 of The Amendment

Face still in her palms, she nodded.

“You can trust me. I only want to help.”

“I don’t want anyone to get into trouble.” She broke down into sobs then and I pulled her to my chest, smoothing her hair down against her temples as I had when she was a small child. She was too young to be dealing with this. It broke my heart to even broach the subject.

“I promise you, you won’t get into trouble. Bailey either. None of your friends… You’ve not done anything wrong. But you have to talk to me so I can fix this.”

She shook her head against my chest. “I really didn’t want to quit dance, Momma.”

The words chilled me to my core. “Wha—”

“It was Coach Chris.”

No.

My throat went dry, the hair on my arms standing on end. “What are you talking about?”

The dance coach I’d trusted to teach our daughter over half of her life. The man who’d taken the girls to dance competitions. The man who’d brought her home when we had to work late or kept our daughter back for an extra session when she wasn’t nailing her routine.

“What did he do, Maisy?” I said, praying Peter was standing outside the door and hearing every word I was. If not, I might be convinced I’d misunderstood. “He was the one sending those pictures?”

She pulled away, meeting my gaze with such wide-eyed innocence it broke my heart.

“Yes. To some of the girls on the team.”

“Did he send any to you?”

She shook her head, and relief broke through the concrete boulder in my chest.

“Did he…did he touch you? Did he hurt you?”

“No,” she confirmed.

“But… Hediddo something to Bailey?”

Her head hung with a regretful nod.

“What did he do to Bailey?”

I hated myself for feeling relief that it was someone else’s child. “I don’t know when it started. He was keeping her after practice and doing private sessions for a while. Then it was nearly every day. Every practice. She didn’t tell us what was happening, but then in health class we talked about…well, you know.”

I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. “Talked about what?”

“Diseases and stuff.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes. I was almost thankful for it.

“We didn’t know about all of that… I mean, I knew you could get pregnant or whatever, but… I guess it scared Bailey, and she told us.”

“She told you they’d been having sex?”

“And other stuff.”

I was going to be sick. I placed a hand to my stomach to keep from throwing up.

“And did you tell anyone? Any teachers or parents?”

“He told her no one would understand. She thinks they’re in love.”

“Maisy, you know it’s impossible for a child to love an adult in that way. He’s abusing her. What he’s doing is illegal and completely wrong.” I looked away, tears filling my eyes at how terrified she must be. She was just a child. They were all just children. “Is that why you left dance? Because of what he was doing to her?”

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