“Hello sweetheart, come here,” I said gently, kneeling down.
She did not run toward me but instead stepped back, and that hesitation broke something inside me.
A harsh voice came from behind me. “Look who finally decided to come back.”
I turned and saw Martha King, a woman whose expression carried nothing but bitterness and control.
“Where have you been, you useless girl,” she snapped, looking at me with contempt.
I stayed silent, watching everything carefully.
Paige King walked in with her son, and the boy grabbed Mia’s doll and threw it across the room without hesitation.
Mia started crying, and when the boy raised his foot to kick her, I grabbed his ankle mid air and held it firmly.
“If you touch her again, you will regret it,” I said calmly, looking directly into his eyes.
Paige rushed toward me angrily and tried to slap me, but I caught her wrist and squeezed until she gasped.
“Teach your son better before he becomes like the men in this house,” I told her quietly.
Martha tried to hit me with a stick, but I took it from her and snapped it in half with one motion.
“From now on, things will be different here, and nobody touches that child again,” I said firmly.