Gloria had spent more than twenty years working as a social worker, a career defined by repeated exposure to family crises, neglect, and complex emotional harm. Over the course of her professional life, she had encountered children abandoned by caregivers, adolescents coping with abuse, parents who deflected responsibility, and family members who distorted the truth to protect themselves. Through experience, she learned that some of the most damaging forms of harm were not visible injuries but long-term emotional neglect reinforced by denial.
On the night she encountered the child at the center of this case, those lessons shaped her response immediately. What she observed was not simply a young person caught outdoors in dangerous weather, but a situation that reflected deeper and more troubling patterns.
