Returning early after three months, the millionaire choked back tears, expecting his daughter to run into his arms. Instead, she whispered, “Daddy, you’re back early.” Stepping inside, he saw her shivering in rags, while his wife lived in luxury. He froze, knelt down, and asked softly, “Who did this to you?”

bed I had commissioned from Italy was gone. The towering oak bookshelves—vanished. The mountain of plush animals, the glowing reading lamp shaped like a crescent moon, the hand-painted wooden trunk that housed her imaginative costumes, the vibrant finger-paintings she had so proudly taped to the wallpaper—everything had been erased.

The only object continue reading …