When I came home from deployment, I found my six-year-old daughter locked inside the backyard shed — frail, shaking, her skin covered in red welts. “Daddy,” she whispered, “Mom’s boyfriend said bad kids sleep out here.” Fifteen months in combat hadn’t prepared me for the war waiting at home. The sun was sinking behind the pines when Ethan Parker pulled into the cracked driveway of his ex-wife’s house. The mailbox hung open like a silent scream. He hadn’t seen his daughter Lily in over a year — n

When I came home from deployment, I found my six-year-old daughter locked inside the backyard shed — frail, shaking, her skin covered in red welts. “Daddy,” she whispered, “Mom’s boyfriend said bad kids sleep out here.” Fifteen months in combat hadn’t prepared me for the war waiting at home. The sun was sinking behind the pines when Ethan Parker pulled into the cracked driveway of his ex-wife’s house. The mailbox hung open like a silent scream. He hadn’t seen his daughter Lily in over a year — n