except she couldn’t get away from them.”
“They’re all signed up for this camp.”
I looked at my daughter, small in that plastic chair, and something inside me folded in half.
“She begged me not to tell you,” Owen said. “She knew you’d already been called in. She didn’t want you leaving work because of her.”
He looked over at Greta.
“I told her I wouldn’t say anything. I figured I could talk to someone here, keep those girls apart, and give her time to tell you herself. Karen asked me to stay while she called you.”
“She begged me not to tell you,”
“I could not agree to that,” Karen cut in, her voice firm. “I’m not going to hide a welfare concern about a ten-year-old from her mother. Especially when I’m being asked to make decisions based on information the mother has never seen.”
