A year.
One year since the man had remarried.
When he thought about how his child had endured a year of abuse while he, her father, had been completely unaware, he wanted to beat himself up.
How could he have been so oblivious?
How could that woman have acted as if nothing was wrong right in front of him?!
When he asked about his daughter, how could that woman have said she was doing just fine?!
It was terrifying.
Truly terrifying.
He had put someone so frightening by his daughter's side...
And that woman had the nerve to call his daughter a devil?!
She was the most loathsome devil of all!
If he had still harbored some doubts about the things the woman had said at the hospital before, now he dismissed them all as nonsense.
She had hurt his daughter so badly, yet that woman had even refused to leave her alone while she was in the hospital!
His child had been willing to endure any pain so her father wouldn't be lonely. She was such a good child. How could that woman bear to hurt her?!
If she couldn't accept his daughter from the start, why had she married him?
He had never hidden the fact that he had a daughter.
He had been completely honest about how special she was, too.
He wanted a wife who truly cared about his daughter and treated her well.
Not a two-faced, duplicitous, honey-tongued viper who acted one way in public and another behind closed doors!
After picking up the medicine, the man carried his daughter back to the parking lot.
Just as he was about to put her in the passenger seat, she tugged at his clothes.
He looked at her questioningly.
The girl pointed toward the back