The woman sat stiffly on the edge of the couch in my vacation house, her hands folded tightly in her lap. She hadn’t stopped trembling since I brought her in, though now she seemed a little more settled—she was catching her breath.
She finally spoke, her voice thin and careful, as if saying the words out loud made them dangerous.
“My name is Li Meilin…” she said, looking down.
“I’m from Sichuan province. My family is from a small village. I came here when I was sixteen then to work and I he spent 8years with the family… I didn’t have much of a choice.”
She swallowed hard and continued.
“I was Daniel’s maid… I was specially assigned to him by the Matriarch. I—I bathed him, cleaned his room, gave him medicine. I was there when he woke up and when he slept. I was with him almost every d
