Colin took a slow breath.
He looked exhausted.
Not angry.
Not surprised.
Terrified.
I stepped toward him.
“Colin, what happened?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Three weeks ago, Brynn called me.”
Brynn immediately shook her head.
“Dad, please.”
“I have to.”
He looked at me again.
“She called me late at night. She was crying.”
I looked at Brynn.
She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“She told me she hated the way she looked.”
My stomach sank.
“She said kids at school were making comments about her. About her mouth. About her teeth. About pictures people had posted.”
I felt something inside me crack.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Brynn’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because you’d make it worse.”
“What?”
“You’d say I was beautiful.”
I stared at her.
“I am your mother. Of course I’d tell you that.”
“That’s the problem!”
Her voice broke.
“You always tell me I’m beautiful when I don’t feel beautiful!”
The kitchen went silent.
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Brynn wiped her face with her sleeve.
“I didn’t want another speech.”
Colin stepped closer to her.
“I told her we would deal with it.”
“You said we’d talk about it,” Brynn whispered.
“I did.”
“You didn’t.”
“I was trying to figure out what to do.”
“And while you were figuring it out, everyone else kept laughing.”
My chest tightened.
I looked at Colin.
“Everyone?”
He nodded slowly.
“Someone made an anonymous account.”
My blood ran cold.
“What kind of account?”
Brynn shook her head violently.
“No.”
I moved toward her.
“Brynn.”
“No, Mom.”
“Who made it?”
“I don’t know.”
Colin interrupted.
“We don’t know for certain.”
“What does it say?”
Neither of them answered.
I looked from one to the other.
Then my phone buzzed on the counter.
A message.
Unknown number.
I picked it up.
There was no greeting.
Just a photograph.
It was a picture of Brynn at school.
She was standing near the lockers, holding a book against her chest.
Someone had circled her mouth in red.
Underneath it were six words.
Still not pretty enough, are you?
My hands began shaking.
Brynn saw my face.
“Mom…”
I turned the phone toward Colin.
His expression changed instantly.
“That’s the account.”
“You’ve seen this before?”
He nodded.
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“You knew my daughter was being harassed for three weeks and you didn’t tell me?”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“By keeping me in the dark?”
“I thought if we involved the school too early, whoever was doing this would escalate.”
“And instead she got cosmetic injections!”
“I know.”
“No, Colin. You don’t get to say ‘I know.’ You weren’t standing here when she walked through that door.”
“I know.”
His voice cracked.
That stopped me.
Colin looked at Brynn.
“I know because I was there when she asked me if I thought she was ugly.”
Brynn lowered her head.
“And I didn’t know what to say.”
