I had barely closed the front door when I heard our daughter crying outside. It wasn\u2019t the angry cry of a child throwing a tantrum.<\/p>\n
It was thin, frightened, and broken by little gasps.<\/p>\n
I dropped my briefcase and ran through the kitchen.<\/p>\n
The back door was wide open.<\/p>\n
Freezing air poured through the doorway, carrying little specks of snow across our kitchen floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily?\u201d<\/p>\n
The crying came again.<\/p>\n
I ran outside without even grabbing my coat.<\/p>\n
What I found in our backyard changed my marriage forever.<\/p>\n
My seven-year-old daughter was outside in the bitter cold despite having been sick with a fever since the previous evening.<\/p>\n
She was terrified, shivering, and clearly hurt.<\/p>\n
For several seconds, my mind refused to understand what I was seeing.<\/p>\n
Then I heard my wife behind me.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe needed to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned around.<\/p>\n
Laura stood inside the doorway with her arms crossed.<\/p>\n
There was no panic on her face.<\/p>\n
No concern.<\/p>\n
No urgency.<\/p>\n
Only irritation.<\/p>\n
I rushed to Emily and brought her inside as quickly and carefully as I could.<\/p>\n
Her skin was cold.<\/p>\n
Her breathing sounded wrong.<\/p>\n
She clung to me and whispered the same sentence repeatedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Daddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those words destroyed something inside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry for what?\u201d<\/p>\n
She wouldn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
She simply buried her face against me.<\/p>\n
I looked toward Laura.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe spilled her dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a moment, I genuinely thought I had misheard her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe spilled food everywhere after I specifically told her to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at my wife.<\/p>\n
Emily had been sick since yesterday.<\/p>\n
That morning, her temperature had been high enough that I considered staying home from work.<\/p>\n
Laura insisted she could handle things.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe needs rest,\u201d I had told her before leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how to take care of my own daughter,\u201d Laura replied.<\/p>\n
I believed her.<\/p>\n
That mistake would haunt me.<\/p>\n
Now our daughter was trembling in my arms, and Laura was talking about spilled food as though that explained anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you do to her?\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura rolled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t start being dramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
I carried Emily into the living room.<\/p>\n
When I tried setting her gently on the couch, she cried out.<\/p>\n
That sound stopped me immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere does it hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed toward her side.<\/p>\n
I carefully lifted the edge of her sweater.<\/p>\n
What I saw made my stomach drop.<\/p>\n
There were visible marks along her side.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n
But I knew we needed a doctor immediately.<\/p>\n
I grabbed my keys.<\/p>\n
Laura stepped between me and the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you going?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t need a hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMove.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael, you always do this. You undermine me every time I try to discipline her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMove away from the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something in my voice finally made Laura step aside.<\/p>\n
I wrapped Emily in the warmest blanket I could find and carried her toward the car.<\/p>\n
Laura followed us.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re making me look like some kind of monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
For the first time since coming home, I looked directly into my wife\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t about how you look.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I left.<\/p>\n
The drive to the emergency department felt endless.<\/p>\n
Emily sat bundled in the back seat while I kept speaking to her so she knew I was there.<\/p>\n
Every few minutes, she apologized.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop saying sorry, sweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Mommy said\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said I wasted food.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said food costs money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care about the food.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was when Emily finally started crying harder.<\/p>\n
Not loudly.<\/p>\n
Quietly.<\/p>\n
Like she had been trying not to cry for hours.<\/p>\n
At the hospital, everything moved quickly once the medical staff examined her.<\/p>\n
A nurse asked me what had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d I admitted.<\/p>\n
It was one of the most painful sentences I had ever spoken.<\/p>\n
I was her father.<\/p>\n
I was supposed to know.<\/p>\n
A doctor examined Emily and ordered imaging.<\/p>\n
Then came questions.<\/p>\n
Had she fallen?<\/p>\n
Had she been in an accident?<\/p>\n
Had anyone struck her?<\/p>\n
I answered honestly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came home and found her outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
The doctor stopped writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer felt even worse.<\/p>\n
The examination revealed injuries serious enough that the medical team became immediately concerned, including multiple rib fractures that required further evaluation.<\/p>\n
My hands started shaking.<\/p>\n
I sat beside Emily\u2019s hospital bed while she held two of my fingers.<\/p>\n
Then she finally told me what happened.<\/p>\n
She had been eating soup at the kitchen table.<\/p>\n
Her hands were shaking because of the fever.<\/p>\n
When she reached for her cup, she accidentally knocked her bowl onto the floor.<\/p>\n
Laura became furious.<\/p>\n
Emily tried apologizing.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
According to my daughter, Laura grabbed her.<\/p>\n
What followed was something no child should experience, and I will not repeat every detail Emily had to explain that night.<\/p>\n
The spilled soup was never the real issue.<\/p>\n
The issue was an adult choosing cruelty over control.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Emily told me Laura had forced her outside into the freezing weather as punishment.<\/p>\n
I felt physically sick.<\/p>\n
The doctor stepped outside with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to report this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n
Not for one second.<\/p>\n
Maybe some people imagine that moment differently.<\/p>\n
Maybe they imagine a husband desperately trying to protect his wife.<\/p>\n
Maybe they imagine denial.<\/p>\n
I felt none.<\/p>\n
My only concern was the little girl lying inside that room.<\/p>\n
I called my brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid, I need you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He heard my voice and stopped asking questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
I gave him the hospital name.<\/p>\n
He arrived forty minutes later.<\/p>\n
When he saw Emily, his face changed.<\/p>\n
Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLaura.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went silent.<\/p>\n
David had never liked my wife.<\/p>\n
I used to accuse him of judging her too harshly.<\/p>\n
Now I wondered how many things he had noticed that I had dismissed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t take Emily back there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStay at my place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I remembered something.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Six months earlier, Laura and I had nearly divorced.<\/p>\n
Our marriage had been deteriorating for years.<\/p>\n
She had become increasingly controlling, volatile, and angry.<\/p>\n
We fought about money.<\/p>\n
We fought about parenting.<\/p>\n
We fought about my work schedule.<\/p>\n
But the worst arguments always concerned Emily.<\/p>\n
Laura believed children needed \u201cabsolute discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n
I believed our daughter needed boundaries without fear.<\/p>\n
After one particularly ugly argument, I met with an attorney.<\/p>\n
Divorce papers were prepared.<\/p>\n
I signed them.<\/p>\n
Then Laura begged me to reconsider.<\/p>\n
She cried.<\/p>\n
She promised counseling.<\/p>\n
She promised she would change.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, she promised Emily would never again be frightened by her temper.<\/p>\n
So I put the papers away.<\/p>\n
I never filed them.<\/p>\n
They remained inside a locked drawer in my office.<\/p>\n
Sitting beside Emily\u2019s hospital bed that night, I suddenly knew exactly what I was going to do with them.<\/p>\n
But first, I stayed with my daughter.<\/p>\n
Authorities were contacted.<\/p>\n
Statements were taken.<\/p>\n
Medical staff documented what they observed.<\/p>\n
Emily was frightened by all the unfamiliar adults.<\/p>\n
I remained beside her.<\/p>\n
Whenever she looked overwhelmed, I reminded her:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
That became my sentence for the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because she kept behaving like she expected punishment.<\/p>\n
That terrified me almost as much as the injuries.<\/p>\n
How long had she been afraid?<\/p>\n
How many things had happened when I wasn\u2019t home?<\/p>\n
How many times had she hidden something because she thought adults wouldn\u2019t believe her?<\/p>\n
Around midnight, Emily finally fell asleep.<\/p>\n
David sat across from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re blaming yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left her there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou went to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Laura had a temper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t know this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI should have.\u201d<\/p>\n
David didn\u2019t argue.<\/p>\n
Maybe he knew there was nothing he could say that would make me forgive myself that night.<\/p>\n
The following morning, I went home accompanied by someone I trusted while Emily remained safely with family after receiving medical care.<\/p>\n
Laura was there.<\/p>\n
She had apparently spent the night sending messages.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t answered them.<\/p>\n
When I entered, she immediately started talking.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael, you need to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
I walked past her.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael!\u201d<\/p>\n
I went directly to my office.<\/p>\n
The drawer was locked.<\/p>\n
My hands shook slightly as I opened it.<\/p>\n
The envelope was exactly where I had left it.<\/p>\n
Inside were the divorce documents.<\/p>\n
My signature was already there.<\/p>\n
I carried them downstairs.<\/p>\n
Laura was standing in the living room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
I put the papers directly in front of her.<\/p>\n
For once, she stopped talking.<\/p>\n
She stared at them.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t be serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been more serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was misbehaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou weren\u2019t here!\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence nearly made me lose control.<\/p>\n
But I refused.<\/p>\n
Emily had already experienced enough anger.<\/p>\n
I would not become another screaming adult in her story.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura seemed surprised by my calmness.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is something I\u2019m going to have to live with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re choosing her over your wife?\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t believe the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s our daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot for much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura started crying.<\/p>\n
Months earlier, her tears might have changed something.<\/p>\n
Not anymore.<\/p>\n
She said she was stressed.<\/p>\n
She said Emily had been difficult.<\/p>\n
She said she had lost control.<\/p>\n
Then she said something that permanently erased whatever remained of our marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know how frustrating she can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
Emily was seven.<\/p>\n
She was sick.<\/p>\n
She had spilled food.<\/p>\n
That was the entire \u201cprovocation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conversation is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura reached for the documents.<\/p>\n
Then she looked at me again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Emily tell them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything suddenly became clear.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t asking whether Emily was okay.<\/p>\n
She wanted to know what Emily had said.<\/p>\n
What doctors knew.<\/p>\n
What authorities knew.<\/p>\n
What I knew.<\/p>\n
I stepped backward.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need an attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face went pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re destroying this family.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped at the front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked around the house.<\/p>\n
Family photographs covered the walls.<\/p>\n
Christmas pictures.<\/p>\n
Birthday photographs.<\/p>\n
A picture of Laura holding newborn Emily.<\/p>\n
Once, those images represented everything I believed I had built.<\/p>\n
Now they felt like evidence of how appearances could deceive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m protecting what\u2019s left of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I walked out.<\/p>\n
The weeks that followed were exhausting.<\/p>\n
There were legal proceedings, medical follow-ups, interviews, paperwork, and difficult conversations with professionals whose job was to protect children.<\/p>\n
I cooperated with everything.<\/p>\n
So did Emily.<\/p>\n
I never told her what to say.<\/p>\n
I never asked her to exaggerate.<\/p>\n
I told her only one thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did.<\/p>\n
The truth was enough.<\/p>\n
Laura\u2019s version changed repeatedly.<\/p>\n
At first, she denied hurting Emily.<\/p>\n
Then she described the incident as discipline.<\/p>\n
Then she suggested Emily had fallen.<\/p>\n
But medical documentation and Emily\u2019s account raised serious questions that could not simply be explained away.<\/p>\n
The divorce moved forward.<\/p>\n
My priority was keeping Emily safe.<\/p>\n
People sometimes asked whether I still loved Laura.<\/p>\n
That question felt almost meaningless.<\/p>\n
Love cannot erase responsibility.<\/p>\n
Marriage cannot require a parent to ignore danger.<\/p>\n
And loyalty to a spouse cannot come before protecting a child from harm.<\/p>\n
Emily\u2019s physical recovery took time.<\/p>\n
Her emotional recovery took longer.<\/p>\n
For weeks, spilled food terrified her.<\/p>\n
One morning, she knocked a glass of orange juice from the breakfast table.<\/p>\n
The glass hit the floor.<\/p>\n
Emily froze.<\/p>\n
Her face went white.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
I grabbed a towel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
She stared at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I spilled it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAren\u2019t you mad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked genuinely confused.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an accident,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n
Then something happened that broke my heart.<\/p>\n
She started crying.<\/p>\n
Not because of the spilled juice.<\/p>\n
Because nobody punished her.<\/p>\n
I sat on the kitchen floor beside her.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen to me, Emily.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wiped her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are allowed to make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded uncertainly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are allowed to spill things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another nod.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are allowed to be sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her lip trembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you are allowed to tell me when someone scares you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That time, she hugged me.<\/p>\n
We stayed on the kitchen floor until the orange juice became sticky beneath our knees.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
Months passed.<\/p>\n
We moved into a smaller house.<\/p>\n
Emily chose a pale yellow bedroom.<\/p>\n
She covered one wall with drawings.<\/p>\n
Our life became quieter.<\/p>\n
Not perfect.<\/p>\n
But safe.<\/p>\n
Sometimes she still asked difficult questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes Mommy love me?\u201d<\/p>\n
I never wanted my anger toward Laura to become Emily\u2019s burden.<\/p>\n
So I answered carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdults can have feelings for someone and still make choices that are harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs she bad?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not something you need to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas I bad?\u201d<\/p>\n
That question hurt the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knelt beside her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were never responsible for what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
She needed to hear that repeatedly.<\/p>\n
Children have a frightening ability to turn an adult\u2019s cruelty inward.<\/p>\n
They search for explanations.<\/p>\n
Maybe I cried too loudly.<\/p>\n
Maybe I made a mess.<\/p>\n
Maybe I was difficult.<\/p>\n
Maybe I deserved it.<\/p>\n
No child deserves it.<\/p>\n
I began learning that protecting Emily meant more than removing her from immediate danger.<\/p>\n
It meant rebuilding her understanding of home.<\/p>\n
Home was where accidents could happen.<\/p>\n
Home was where illness brought blankets, medicine, and concern.<\/p>\n
Home was where crying brought someone closer instead of making someone dangerous.<\/p>\n
And home was where spilled food required a mop.<\/p>\n
Nothing more.<\/p>\n
I also had to confront my own mistakes.<\/p>\n
There had been warning signs before that winter afternoon.<\/p>\n
Laura\u2019s anger.<\/p>\n
Her obsession with obedience.<\/p>\n
Emily becoming unusually quiet whenever her mother entered the room.<\/p>\n
I had explanations for everything.<\/p>\n
Work stress.<\/p>\n
Parenting differences.<\/p>\n
Exhaustion.<\/p>\n
Marriage problems.<\/p>\n
I had mistaken explanations for excuses.<\/p>\n
They are not the same thing.<\/p>\n
Someone can be stressed and still be responsible for their choices.<\/p>\n
Someone can be angry and still be responsible for controlling their behavior.<\/p>\n
And someone can be your spouse while still being unsafe around your child.<\/p>\n
I wish I had understood that sooner.<\/p>\n
I cannot change the afternoon when I opened our front door and heard Emily crying outside.<\/p>\n
I cannot erase what happened before I reached her.<\/p>\n
But I can decide what happens afterward.<\/p>\n
The signed divorce papers became symbolic to me.<\/p>\n
Months earlier, I had prepared them because I knew our marriage was unhealthy.<\/p>\n
Then fear, hope, guilt, and promises convinced me to stay.<\/p>\n
That second chance nearly cost far more than a failed marriage.<\/p>\n
So when I finally placed those papers in front of Laura, I wasn\u2019t celebrating revenge.<\/p>\n
There was nothing satisfying about it.<\/p>\n
My marriage was ending.<\/p>\n
My daughter had been hurt.<\/p>\n
Our family would never look the same.<\/p>\n
But some endings are necessary because continuing would be worse.<\/p>\n
Today, Emily laughs loudly again.<\/p>\n
That might sound insignificant.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
For months, she seemed to monitor every sound she made.<\/p>\n
Now she sings while brushing her teeth.<\/p>\n
She leaves toys across the living-room floor.<\/p>\n
Sometimes she spills cereal.<\/p>\n
Sometimes she gets frustrated.<\/p>\n
Sometimes she cries.<\/p>\n
And every ordinary childhood mistake feels like evidence that fear is slowly losing its hold on her.<\/p>\n
I still remember that freezing afternoon.<\/p>\n
The open back door.<\/p>\n
The cold air rushing through the kitchen.<\/p>\n
My daughter\u2019s frightened crying.<\/p>\n
And Laura standing there insisting that punishment justified what I had found.<\/p>\n
But another memory has gradually become stronger.<\/p>\n
Emily spilling orange juice months later.<\/p>\n
Her frightened expression.<\/p>\n
My towel landing on the floor.<\/p>\n
And the moment she finally understood that nobody was going to hurt her over a mistake.<\/p>\n
That is the home I should have protected from the beginning.<\/p>\n
It is the home I am building now.<\/p>\n
If there is one thing I learned, it is that protecting your child sometimes requires accepting a truth you desperately wanted to deny.<\/p>\n
A marriage certificate does not make someone safe.<\/p>\n
An apology does not erase a pattern.<\/p>\n
A promise to change does not matter unless behavior actually changes.<\/p>\n
And when a child is being harmed, protecting the family\u2019s appearance cannot become more important than protecting the child.<\/p>\n
The day I came home early, I thought I was walking into another ordinary evening.<\/p>\n
Instead, I discovered something that ended my marriage.<\/p>\n
But it also ended my denial.<\/p>\n
I could not undo what had happened.<\/p>\n
I could only make certain it would never happen again.<\/p>\n
So I chose Emily.<\/p>\n
I chose safety.<\/p>\n
I chose truth.<\/p>\n
And when I finally walked away from that house, the divorce papers were no longer simply documents ending a marriage.<\/p>\n
They represented a promise to my daughter:<\/p>\n
She would never again have to earn the right to feel safe inside her own home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had barely closed the front door when I heard our daughter crying outside. It wasn\u2019t the angry cry of a child throwing a tantrum. It was thin, frightened, and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45368,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45366\/revisions\/45368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}