I called Renata back and asked her the question I didn’t want the answer to. What was he doing here for four hours. She said the next part very carefully, because the police would ask Lily, not me.

But she’d seen enough custody cases to guess. “They use the kid,” she said. “They coach them. What to say to the monitor. What to say to the judge.” So Danny could get the supervision lifted. So he could take them back.

I went and sat on the edge of Lily’s bed that morning while she ate cereal. I asked her, easy as I could, about Uncle Greg.

Her whole face lit up. “He comes when you’re sleeping,” she said, proud, like she’d kept the secret so good. “We practice.” I asked her practice what. She shrugged and stirred her cereal and said, “What to tell the lady. Uncle Greg says it’s our secret.” Then she looked at me and her chin did the wobble. “He said you’d be mad.”

I told her I wasn’t mad at her. I told her she did nothing wrong. I told her that about nine times. I’m not sure she believed me.

The police have the footage now. Greg’s been charged with the break-ins, the trespassing, all of it, and Renata says Danny’s whole case is basically gone. We changed the locks again. Real ones this time. A guy came out and did every door and the side gate.

Lily still asks when Uncle Greg is coming back. She asked again last night, standing in her doorway in her pajamas, the hallway light on behind her. I said he’s not coming back, baby. She looked at me for a long second.

“But he has a key,” she said.

I told her he doesn’t anymore. I keep telling her that. I keep telling myself that too.

I still get up at 11:47 to check the gate. Every single night. I don’t know how long it takes to stop.