After my husband threw me to the floor and broke my leg, my four-year-old daughter used our secret signal and called grandpa for help.

body.

David crouched beside me.

— Tell your father you slipped, he said. Tell everyone the floor was wet.

For one brief moment, anger burned through me.

Then I remembered Emma.

I raised my right hand.

Two fingers.

Emma froze.

Then she understood.

We had practiced this signal as a game years earlier.

If Mommy ever holds up two fingers, run to the phone.

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