The Perfect Child(40)

You’re doing the right thing. Dr. Chandler said it would help, I recited again and again while I tried to stay strong.

She alternated between screaming and crying for the next two hours. Finally, she was silent. I gave her a few more minutes before I breathed a sigh of relief that it was finally over. We’d made it through whatever weird psyche battle we were going through. I got on my knees and peeked up at her bed to make sure she was asleep.

She was curled up against the wall, rocking back and forth. Her legs were pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She’d ripped her clothes off, including her diaper, so she was completely naked. I looked closer. There was stuff all over her mouth, and her chest was covered in vomit. Guilt pummeled me. I’d made her cry so hard she’d thrown up. I jumped up, flicked the light switch on, and ran back to her. The sticky substance wasn’t vomit—it was blood.

“Janie!” I yelled. I grabbed her face in my hands. Her bottom lip was gushing blood. Pieces of flesh were missing. Hannah had raced into the room when I had turned on the light, and she stood beside me, staring at Janie in horror.

“How did that happen? I don’t understand,” she said in disbelief.

“She chewed through her skin,” I said.





CASE #5243

INTERVIEW:

PIPER GOLDSTEIN

I stared at the picture in front of me. It was the one from Janie’s second emergency room visit—the time she’d gotten twelve stitches in her bottom lip. The same one that was in the file on my desk. I should’ve known it was one they’d use. I didn’t wait for them to ask questions.

“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not true. They didn’t hurt her. She did it to herself. I believed them and not because I’m stupid. I saw Janie get so mad once that she chewed the flesh off her own finger. Not her fingernail. The actual flesh of her finger. So no, I never once considered that the Bauers had hurt her. I called an emergency meeting with them the next day because the social worker from the hospital had reported the incident. I—”

Ron interrupted me. “I read that report. That social worker seemed pretty convinced that the Bauers were hurting Janie.”

I shook my head. “It didn’t look good. I’ll admit that. She’d only been with them for a little while, and she’d already ended up in the emergency room twice, but I spoke with Dr. Chandler, and their story checked out. They were only doing what she’d instructed them to do.”

“Did they keep going back to Dr. Chandler?”

“They did.”

“Even after she’d suggested a therapy practice that ended up hurting Janie?”

“Yes, they continued seeing Dr. Chandler. Because you want to know the craziest thing about that entire incident?” I didn’t wait for either of them to answer. “It worked. Janie started talking to Hannah again.”





TWENTY-THREE

HANNAH BAUER

Christopher stood holding the trunk open for me so we could set the groceries inside. We were trying to figure out what to grab on the way home to eat for dinner while Janie pulled at his pant leg trying to get his attention. He’d practically dragged her through the parking lot.

“Janie, you have to wait your turn. Christopher and I are talking,” I said without looking at her.

She started whining and switched into baby talk while she tugged on him. I looked at him pointedly just as he was about to say something to her. Dr. Chandler was continually working with him on not allowing Janie to interrupt our conversations. He caught himself.

“Go on—what were you saying?” he asked me.

I rattled off our options again, and he nodded as I spoke, but I was sure he wasn’t registering anything I was saying.

“Sure, let’s just do . . .” He looked down. I followed his gaze. Janie wasn’t there.

My heart stopped.

“Janie!” we screamed at the same time.

We took off running in opposite directions, yelling her name. I rounded a corner and spotted her cutting in between two cars. I sprinted after her and grabbed her arm.

I got down into her face. “You cannot do that. Do you understand me? You can’t run off in a busy parking lot. You could have really gotten hurt.”

She jerked away and looked up at me defiantly. Christopher rushed up behind me. She started crying as soon as she saw him, and he scooped her into his arms. “Sweetie, you can’t do that. It’s dangerous to run across a busy parking lot. You could’ve been hit by a car.”

She batted her eyelashes at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”

Calling him Daddy was a new thing, and he turned to mush on the spot every time. She had yet to call me Mommy, except that time at Target when she’d yelled that I was hurting her, and I tried to pretend like it didn’t bother me, but of course it did.

He rubbed her back. “It’s okay. Just please don’t do that again.”

“I won’t. I promise, Daddy.”

He had forgotten all about it, but I couldn’t let it go. I replayed the scene all day long. I waited until we were in bed that night to bring it up. I rolled over to face him and said, “You know Janie took off earlier today to get your attention, right?”

He shrugged. “Maybe, but she’s also impulsive. You know how she gets.”