Richard sighed.
“Pink.”
“My best friend?”
“Evie.”
“What book are we reading?”
He answered correctly.
Lily smiled.
Satisfied.
I watched them from the kitchen.
There was no stage.
No superintendent.
No local reporter.
No microphone.
No award.
Just a father and his daughter standing in an ordinary kitchen on an ordinary Tuesday.
For years, Richard had worked incredibly hard to convince everyone in town that he was a good father.
In the end, the only people whose opinion truly mattered were the six children living inside his house.
And unlike everyone else—
they knew whether he was telling the truth.
