Beth’s eyes got wet. “Yes, exactly. Even when he talked about fixing my problem, he was patient. But he wouldn’t let me disagree. Put a finger on my lips when I tried to say let’s wait. ’Cause I didn’t want to be scraped again. Anyway, the next day, he told Mrs. Daney we were going to a sports night out somewhere far. In Thousand Oaks, I think. Instead we went to this place, a clinic, that was close to the house. It was nighttime and the place looked closed but the doctor was like come on in. She put me in a room and I got aborted really quick.”

“Remember the doctor’s name?” I said.

“She never said. She had an accent. Short and dark, kind of . . . not fat but . . . thick, you know? Like she’d have a hard time wearing fitted jeans, would need relaxed fit? There was no one there with her but she moved real quickly, everything went real quick. Afterward, Drew was hungry and we went out for doughnuts. I had some cramps but they weren’t so bad. A few days after that, he stopped taking me to the nonprofits and he got another girl to be his assistant. A new one, she’d just been there a couple of days. I guess I felt jealous. For sure I was real bored so I took some money out of his wallet and went to Fresno. I met some new people. Dr. Gee? I’m thirsty.”

* * *

She finished two cups of water. “Thanks, that was refreshing.” To me: “You can ask me questions if you want.”

“Do you remember the name of the girl who became Mr. Daney’s new assistant?”

“Miranda. Don’t know her last name. She was younger than me, maybe sixteen. Mexican, like I said, most of the girls were Mexican. She thought she was street but she was just spoiled— had attitude. When she became his assistant, she was like, I’m all that.”

She twisted and faced Allison: “Maybe I should’ve told her, Dr. Gee. What being an assistant was. But even though she was just there a few days she was mean to me and I figured if she was all that, she could handle it.”

“You had a lot to deal with. It wasn’t your responsibility to protect anyone else,” said Allison.

“I guess . . . also, like you were saying before, I didn’t really figure out it was abuse. I thought it was . . .”

“Attention.”

Beth faced me. “I had no feelings back then, it felt like attention.”

Tears trickled from her eyes and she turned back to Allison. “What you said last week, Dr. Gee? Everyone looks for someone to attach to? I guess that was it.”

Allison walked around her desk and stood next to Beth. Beth held out her hand and Allison took it.

“I’m okay. Really . . . sir— Doctor— you can ask questions.”

“You’re sure?” I said.