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

For months, he had convinced himself that Lucia was simply going through a difficult teenage phase. Quiet. Irritable. Emotional. Too old to laugh at his terrible jokes, yet too young to explain the emptiness that had settled behind her eyes.