The video showed Lily sitting on her rug, hugging her knees, whispering, “Please go away, please go away.” Then, the door was kicked open. Carol marched in, her face a distorted mask of cruelty I had never seen. “Stand up!” she barked. “Stop acting like a wounded animal. It’s pathetic.”
Lily scrambled to her feet, sobbing. “Grandma, please. I’ll be good.”
“Good?” Carol laughed, a sound that made my skin crawl. “You’re a liar. You tell your father we’re mean to you. You try to drive a wedge between me and Megan.”
Then Jason stepped into the frame, folding a leather belt between his hands—a silent, terrifying threat. “She needs discipline, Mom. Mark is raising a brat. Look at her, playing the victim.”
On the screen, Carol lunged. She grabbed Lily by the arm, her nails digging into the child’s skin. “You’re going to learn respect,” she hissed.
“Let me go!” Lily screamed, struggling with everything she had.
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