Chapter 21 - Sorrel at TwentySorrel studied land-use law.
Everyone expected her to become a child advocate.
She didn't.
She liked zoning.
“Why?”
“Because it's boring.”
I laughed.
Trauma did not get to choose her career.
At twenty, she asked me:
“Why didn't anyone tell you I was in danger?”
The question stayed with me.
Because relatives were frightened.
Because staff were intimidated.
Because Aurelia controlled communication.
Because I accepted explanations.
Because school saw signs but not enough to recognize the whole picture.
One preschool teacher had once written:
Sorrel seems unusually tired and anxious about going home.
Aurelia answered from my account.
We are addressing grief behavior with structure.
I never saw the message.
Could the school have called me separately?
Maybe.
Would it have changed everything?
Maybe.
We couldn't know.
“There wasn't one person holding a rescue button,” I told Sorrel.
She nodded.
“That's why mandatory reporting exists.”
She was twenty.
Already thinking like a lawyer.
Then she looked at me.
“You should've been more reachable.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
May you like
That answer had become easier.
I had spent years learning how to hear uncomfortable truths without turning them into attacks.
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