“He didn’t forbid it.”
“But?”
“He made every call cost me something afterward.”
Evelyn paused.
“What do you mean?”
“He’d punish me.”
“How?”
“Silent treatment.”
I watched Dad playing with Noah.
“Money.”
A pause.
“Sometimes he’d cancel things.”
“What things?”
“A card.”
“A car.”
“Help with the babies.”
“Anything I depended on.”
“And the physical incident?”
“Two nights ago.”
“Any others?”
I wanted to deny it.
Then I remembered Cole blocking the bedroom doorway, gripping my upper arm, taking my phone overnight, and preventing me from using the elevator “until
