Callie went to the corner. Not because anyone told her to, as far as I could see. She picked up a stuffed animal she’d had on the couch, walked to the far corner near the bookshelf, and sat down on the floor.

And she stayed there. For almost four hours, that little girl sat in the corner of her own living room and did not move in any way that would draw attention to herself. I watched her do it. I watched her make herself small. She knew. She already knew, from however many times this had happened before, that the way to get through it was to disappear.

The man, I still don’t know his name, I refuse to use it, he helped himself to food from our kitchen. I could hear the refrigerator open twice. He sat on our couch and watched our TV and at one point he went through a stack of mail on the side table by the front door. Just flipped through it. Slowly. Our names, our address, our bank statements. I was watching this happen in real time with my lunch sitting next to my keyboard going cold and I couldn’t do anything except keep watching because I needed to see all of it.

Melissa came back in the room around 2pm. He stood up, said something to her, and left out the back door the same way he came. She walked over to Callie, crouched down, and said those words. “Remember. Daddy can’t know about our friend.” And Callie nodded. And Melissa patted her on the head and turned on a cartoon.

I called Greg first. I don’t even remember what I said to him. Something like come home, I need you to come home, and I think my voice sounded weird enough that he didn’t ask questions.

Then I called the non-emergency police line and explained what I had and they sent someone over within the hour. Two officers. They watched the footage at our kitchen table and I sat across from them and just kept my hands flat on my knees because they wouldn’t stop shaking otherwise.

One of the officers made a call partway through. He stepped away from the table and I couldn’t hear what he said but when he came back his whole manner was different. More careful, I guess. He asked me a few more questions about Melissa, how long she’d worked for us, who had recommended her. And then he told us that the man in the footage was a registered sex offender. He told us that the man was Melissa’s boyfriend.