Waking up in the hospital, the rookie cop with tears in her eyes urged me to hang in there.

She explained my emotional rollercoaster was why I'd suddenly coughed up blood.

Looking at me clinging to my daughter, even in sleep, she wore a face full of guilt.

She repeatedly assured me that they were closing in on the killer.

I knew it wasn't on them.

I just wanted to get back home.

While she was fetching my meds, I wandered out of the room, cradling "my daughter" in a daze.

I bumped right into Robert and Sienna.

They were fussing over a small cut on Sienna's finger.

"If cooking's not your thing, maybe skip it next time. Does it hurt?"

"I just wanted to show off my culinary skills."

"I know how great you are already, no need to overdo it next time."

Robert tenderly blew on the faint blood trace on her finger.

Sienna gave him a pouty, embarrassed look, still stubbornly muttering, "I wasn't pushing it..."

Feeling my stare, Robert looked up at me.

Our eyes met, and his face flashed with panic, quickly turning to annoyance and disgust.

"Jane, after all these years, I can't believe you'd stoop to stalking. You know I hate being micromanaged."

"This is just annoying."

I ignored him, holding my daughter even tighter, desperate to get home.

But as I moved to pass them, Sienna grabbed me, her face more hauntingly beautiful than ever.

"Let go!"

I snapped, my voice icy.

Sienna flinched at my tone but held on, her eyes wide and innocent as she tried to smooth things over for Robert. "Jane, are you mad?"

"Someone was following me home last night, and I got scared, so I called Robert. He said my lock wasn't sturdy enough, so we went to buy a new one together. I tried cooking to thank him, and that's when I cut myself. We didn't do anything, I swear."

As she spoke, she kept making tearful glances at Robert.

I glanced down at her so-called injury.

Just a light pink mark, almost invisible unless you really looked.

Yet Robert acted like it was a severe injury, even giving me wary looks, as if afraid I'd lash out at her.

Fed up, I shook off Sienna's hand with a sharp jerk, "A match made in heaven, really. Trash finds trash. Please, spare me the details about your play."

Sienna's face drained of color, and she started crying.

Robert was clearly taken aback by my response.

I'd always been the one who was accommodating and resilient.

Now Sienna was trying to clear the air, and I was expected to gracefully accept her explanation?

"Jane! You're out of line!"

"Sienna was just worried about a misunderstanding and was trying to be nice about it. What's with the attitude?"

Sienna... Robert... their names dripped with familiarity.

I wished I could shield my daughter from seeing this side of Robert, but she wasn't there.

My heart turned colder.

"What reaction did you expect?"

I snapped, turning to leave.

Sienna, weeping, collapsed into Robert's arms, "I didn't think it would end like this."

"If I'd known Jane would take it so hard, I wouldn't have called you that night. Maybe I should have let that drifter take me out instead, just to avoid this drama."

"It's not too late to die now."

My retort was bitter.

Robert stormed over, fury in his eyes, and slapped me across the face.

The world spun.

He grabbed my wrist, his grip painful, but I felt numb, just staring back at him coldly.

Maybe it was the iciness in my gaze.

His angry expression faltered, and after a moment's pause, he began to explain, "Sienna's telling the truth. You know she's been through a lot; I'm all she has left."

"You shouldn't be so harsh on her."

I looked past him.

Sienna smirked at me provocatively.

I struggled, feeling like my wrist might snap.

Robert suddenly let go, seeing the swelling on my face, his voice softened, "I know you're upset I missed picking up Nia. I promise, from now on, I'll be there to pick her up every day, okay?"

"No need."

No need for that anymore.

My heart seized up again.

I dared not think about how desperate my daughter must have felt in her final moments.

Robert seemed impatient.

He yanked me closer, "Jane, you were always the reasonable one. Why make a big deal out of this minor issue? I've promised to take care of Nia. What more do you want? Nia herself isn't fussing, so what's your problem?"

I staggered as he pulled me.

The bag slipped from my hand, and my daughter tumbled to the ground.

My breath caught, my heart shattered, unable to breathe.

Tears welled up as I trembled, squatting to pick her back up.

But Sienna quickly moved closer, peered at the bag, pinched her nose, and stomped on it, "Robert, what is this? It stinks."

I pushed her away, eyes blazing.

She fell to the ground, screaming.

Robert was furious, berating me right by my ear.

But I couldn't hear any of it.

Only now did I fully see just how much Nia had suffered.

Perhaps my defiance had finally pushed Robert too far.

He grabbed me roughly, glaring, "Aren't you embarrassed by this charade? Stop it already!"

He hadn't recognized his own daughter and kicked the bag.

Onlookers recoiled, screaming in disgust.

He dragged me to watch as he threw the bag into a trash can with a loud bang.

I sobbed, shaking my head, trying desperately to stop him, but he held me down.

A crushing weight settled on my chest, and I broke down, crying uncontrollably, "Robert, you monster! That's Nia! That's our daughter!"

Maybe it was my heartbreak, but somehow he looked frightened.

His hold on my wrist suddenly loosened.

I was a mess, scouring through the trash like a lunatic.

Collapsed on the ground, people's stares cutting through me like I was some sort of apparition.

Robert finally snapped to, realizing what was happening.

He squatted down in front of me, eyeing the black trash bag in my grip, then back at me.

His face twisted with concern, he stammered, "Jane, you've lost it, haven't you? If you're sick, get help. This can't be Nia!"

"Even if you resent me, you shouldn't damn our daughter like that."

"Are you even listening to me?!"

He shoved me down, yanked the bag from my hands, and held it aloft.

But he couldn't bring himself to drop it.

I watched his hands tremble, unable to stay still.

A junior officer who had fetched my meds rushed over, pulling me to my feet.

He turned a stern gaze on Robert, "Mr. Salome, you're Nia's father, correct? Mrs. Salome mentioned you were supposed to pick Nia up the night she went missing. We need to talk."

Robert's complexion turned ashen. He tried to reach out to steady me, shaking.

"I don't understand... Jane... how this could have happened, how... this could be our daughter."

He paused, his voice faltering.

I pushed his hand away, my voice cold, "Are you actually saying that this heap of trash, trampled and tossed by you, isn't our daughter?"

"Robert, how can you even ask me that? Nia called you 'dad' for years."

"Even on the day she died, as I drove her to school, she kept asking if you were really going to pick her up after school."

"But what were you doing? You knew a killer was out there, the schools and police were blasting warnings for parents to pick up their kids."

"Yet, you left her stranded because Sienna called you."

My voice cracked, the most raw and intense outpouring I've had since I left the mountains.

Robert was stunned, his eyes bloodshot, and he was hitting his own head in frustration, "It never went wrong before; I thought it wouldn't matter this time either, Jane, it wasn't deliberate."

I just scoffed, tears streaming uncontrollably while my eyes burned.

I thrust "my daughter" toward him.

"Do you know why I've always been so hands-on with everything about Nia, and this time I let you pick her up?"

"Because she felt like her dad didn't really love her."

"She was always so well-behaved around you, yet you said she wasn't bubbly or cheerful like other girls, that she was too much like her mom, too calculated, too eager to please."

"Just because you once complimented another kid's grades, she strived to be the best, telling me every day after school and during every break, ‘Mom, I don't want to rest; I want to be first. Dad loves kids who are good at school.' She pushed herself to excel in every test, but what did you do? All you could say was, 'Don't get cocky.' Did you ever see her, running up to you with her test, beaming with pride, only to leave crushed, pushing herself even harder?"

"Even this time, she told me she was scared because all the other girls' dads were picking them up, and you were the only one who never had. When I told her you would pick her up, do you have any idea how excited she was?"

I watched as Robert's face turned ashen. In a frenzy, I lashed out at him.

I threw Nia's smartwatch at him.

He swayed as he read the messages, then looked at me, crying.

"She's been acing her tests for the past six months, always asking me for rewards, and you kept saying she was too immature, just obsessed with money. But you didn't know she was also tutoring other kids, explaining homework to them. She had a piggy bank with three thousand dollars saved up."

"She saw a watch on one of her classmates' dads she liked, said she wanted to earn enough to buy you one for your birthday because she thought you didn't love her enough, that she wasn't good enough."

"She believed if she could just be a bit more dutiful, love you a bit more, then maybe you'd start to love her too."

"Robert, do you even have a heart?"

It started as a cathartic release, a venting of pent-up frustrations.

But in the end, I just broke down completely.

They say a daughter is her father's princess, supposed to be cherished.

Every time I saw her get dismissed by Robert, it tore me apart.

I argued, I fought, but it only made her more upset.

I compromised and tried to make up for it by being even kinder to her.

Luckily, she was optimistic, kind, brave, smart, and emotionally stable.

Like a moth drawn to a flame, she kept trying, thinking she could earn your love through her efforts.

"Look at your daughter."

I moved the bag closer to him. "Can you even imagine how much she suffered before she died?"