For a few seconds, I could not speak. Sophie had never mentioned a girlfriend because, as far as I knew, her father did not have one. My husband, Daniel, was downstairs watching television. I asked Sophie exactly what Grandma had said. Between tears, she explained that my mother-in-law had shown her photographs of a younger woman named Amber and repeatedly said, “Your father likes women who take care of themselves.” Then she warned Sophie not to tell me because it would “cause problems between adults.”

I went downstairs and asked Daniel one question: “Who is Amber?” His face answered before his mouth did. He tried to say she was a coworker, then admitted they had been seeing each other for several months. His mother knew. Worse, she had apparently decided Sophie needed to become thinner because Amber was slim, and she believed comparing a thirteen-year-old girl to her father’s girlfriend was somehow “motivation.” I told Daniel to leave the house that night and took screenshots of the messages he eventually showed me.