HIS NEIGHBOR WOULDN’T STOP REPORTING THE SOUND OF A GIRL CRYING INSIDE HIS HOUSE—THEN HE HID BENEATH HIS DAUGHTER’S BED AND HEARD HER PLEAD FOR SOMEONE TO SPARE HER

Then rage broke through.

“You ungrateful man,” she hissed. “I raised another woman’s daughter for four years. I cooked, cleaned, drove her around, sat through her moods, and all I got was disrespect. She wanted me gone from the beginning. She made sure I never had a place in this house.”

Lucia whispered, “I was eleven.”