And I knew the adults had a responsibility to make sure she never had to carry it again.
Daniel came to my house that afternoon.
He arrived without Vanessa.
He carried a folder, two shopping bags, and an expression that reminded me of the night Claire first told him she was seriously ill.
We sat at the kitchen table.
He looked toward my daughter's photograph.
Then he lowered his eyes.
"I've been a fool."
I shook my head.
"Danielโ"
"No. Let me say it."
I waited.
He opened the folder.
Inside were printed screenshots, purchase receipts, and copies of messages Vanessa had sent him over the previous year.
He placed one photograph on the table.
It showed Lily wearing a beautiful new outfit.
Then he placed another beside it.
It showed the same room several days later, with Lily wearing the old blue dress.
"I've been buying things constantly," he said. "Sometimes Vanessa ordered them. Sometimes I did."
I nodded.
"Clearly."
He looked down.
"When I asked whether Lily needed anything, Vanessa always said she was handling it."
I studied the papers.
"Did you ever check?"
He shook his head.
"Not carefully enough."
His voice became bitter.
"I thought paying for things and asking how she was doing meant I was taking care of everything."
I reached across the table.
"Daniel, you have been working hard to provide for your daughter."
He looked at me.
"But I wasn't listening closely enough to her."
I didn't contradict him.
He was right.
Not because he was a bad father, but because children needed more than arrangements managed by someone else.
He looked toward Claire's photograph.
"She would've noticed."
I felt tears rising.
"Maybe."
He shook his head.
"She would have."
I looked at him.
"Claire wasn't perfect, Daniel. None of us were."
He stared at the photograph.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then he pulled another page from the folder.
"There's more."
I looked down.
It was a screenshot of a message Vanessa had sent him months earlier.
She claimed I had become upset when Lily wore a new dress during a family visit and had asked that the child be dressed in older clothing because it reminded me of Claire.
I stared.
"I never said that."
Daniel nodded.
"I know."
He placed another message beside it.