I look down at her but she doesn’t look at me. I gently lift her chin until I can see her face. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes: fear, shame, embarrassment and sorrow stare back at me. She silently begs me not to ask her about the nightmare but I don’t know how to just let it go. Someone hurt her and that I can’t ignore.

“Kenzie… who hurt you baby?”

“No one, Nicholas.”

“Someone hurt you. Your nightmare was real—it wasn’t from a book or a movie, was it?”

She shakes her head and tries to look back down but I hold her chin up, not wanting...