"Mommy, why are you sad?" Lily's soft voice broke through my swirling thoughts as I struggled to keep my hands steady on the steering wheel.
"I'm not sad, sweetheart. Just thinking about grown-up stuff." I forced a smile, though my face felt heavy with the weight of the lie.
Lily didn't buy it. Her wide, innocent eyes locked onto me in the rearview mirror. "Is it about that man on your phone? The one who made you cry?"
My breath caught in my throat. I wanted to shield her from the chaos surrounding me, but children had a way of seeing through everything. The image from the video flashed through my mind—Gabriel sitting too close to a woman with crimson lips and predatory eyes. The way she leaned into him, her hand brushing his arm. The intimate angle of the footage was damning, even if G
