ran a long way. And I came here, because me and Mommy slept here before, in the summer, when we didn't have the apartment anymore. Mommy said it was our secret castle. She said nobody could find us here." Her lower lip trembled for the first time. "But Mommy didn't come."
"Oh, honey," Sam said.
"And then Nora came instead."
Nora reached over and took June's small hand.
"And the police," Sam said carefully. "Nora said the police took you before?"
June's whole body went stiff in his arms.
"When I was little," she said. "Mommy was sick and they came and took me to a house. It was a lady's house and there was a man there too and he hit me with a belt when I wet the bed. I was there a long time. Then Mommy got better and she came and got me." She looked up at him, and her eyes were very wide. "If they find me they'll take me back to that house. Nora said you wouldn't let them."
Sam looked at his daughter over June's head. Nora looked back at him, her face streaked with tears, and he saw that she knew. She had always known, underneath. She was eleven, not stupid. She had known that this could not go on, that a six-year-old could not live in a basement through a Pennsylvania winter on peanut butter and library books. She had brought him here, in a way. She had left the drawing on her wall. She had let the jar run empty.
"June," Sam said. "I need to tell you something true. Can I tell you something true?"
June nodded slowly.
"It's very, very cold out tonight. It's going to get colder. And you've got a cough, and you're too thin, and you've got a bruise on your face that a grown-up gave you, and none of that is okay. You need to see a doctor. And we need to find out what happened to your mommy. Those are things I can't do by myself. I have to call some people to help. Some of them are going to be police officers." He felt her start to pull away, and he held on, gently. "Wait. Listen. I know you're scared of them. I know something bad happened to you before. But I'm not going to hand you off to anybody and walk away. I'm going to stay with you the whole time. I'm going to ride in the car with you. I'm going to be right there in the room. And I am going to tell every single person I talk to about the man with the belt, so that nobody ever, ever sends you back to that house. Okay? That's my promise. Nora knows I keep my promises."
June looked at Nora.
"He does," Nora whispered. "He's bad at a lot of stuff. But he keeps his promises."