My daughter was screaming - loud, terrified shrieks that sliced at my heart - and I had no idea why everyone pretended they didn't hear it.

Sunlight streamed through my office window in a long rectangle over the cracked tile floor, and beyond it, my secretary sat outside the open door. Between the clicks of her red-painted fingernails over the computer keyboard, she stared at her lap. Unless she caught the mouse in the office I didn't tell her about and was deciding what to ...