Hours passed before I saw my wife again.
She looked different from the woman who had stood beside the cage earlier.
Not because she was suddenly remorseful.
Because she knew the phone existed.
She stopped several feet away.
“Can I see her?” she asked.
I tightened my arm around our daughter.
She reached toward the child.
Our daughter immediately pressed her face against my chest.
My wife froze.
For the first time since I had opened that cage, I saw a reaction on her face that wasn’t anger or irritation.
She looked hurt.
But I couldn’t tell whether she was hurt by what she had done or by the fact that our daughter was afraid of her.
“I never wanted to hurt her,” she said.
I didn’t answer.
She stepped closer.
“I was trying to make her stronger.”
I looked at her.
“Stronger for what?”
She hesitated.
