In the end, I was hired as an assistant in the dietetics department. I work with the registered dietitians and help process diet orders and menus to patients. Maybe not my dream job but it provides health insurance, which we’re in desperate need of.

Violet still has nightmares about that night and sometimes wakes up screaming for me to get the blood off her. At night, in the dark, when I start thinking on these things I can almost feel his presence in the room and I have to remind myself he isn’t real, that Joseph Wither doesn’t exist.

In the end, no one was arrested for anything, although Jordyn was ordered to go to counseling for lying about her teacher being in the train yard. If you ask me, she got off easy. No one should be able to ruin someone’s life like that.

And part of me wishes that Kendall Landry and her friend Emery had been charged with something for their catfish game. They lied and pretended to be someone else. They convinced a vulnerable little girl that the person on the other end of the computer loved and cared about her. Even though they may not have meant for anyone to get hurt, three little girls and their families will never be the same.

When Violet doesn’t think I’m looking, I watch her. I watch as she draws in her sketchbook, while she reads, while she watches TV on the couch with Boomer. I watch her when she is daydreaming, staring up at the ceiling or into corners, and wonder if she’s thinking of that night. Then I make myself stop. I don’t want what happened in Pitch to define who she becomes. Dr. Gideon told me to be watchful but not to make myself sick with worry. I talked to Violet’s counselor in her new school. She’s going to meet with her once a week to help her make a smooth adjustment to seventh grade.

It’s no surprise that Max is doing just fine in our new town, making plenty of friends and girlfriends, though I still catch him texting Nikki now and then. He watches Violet just as closely as I do. He worries and it makes me sad and proud all at the same time.