There are moments in life when everything shifts in an instant. For me, it happened on an ordinary Saturday afternoon, just as the house filled with the sounds of arriving guests. My fourteen-year-old daughter, Sarah, slid a small folded note across the dining table. Five words were written in her neat handwriting:
Pretend you’re sick and leave.
At first, I didn’t understand. I looked at her, confused, but the urgency in her eyes was unmistakable. She wasn’t joking. She wasn’t exaggerating. She was terrified.
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