The delicious smell of freshly baked cookies filled the apartment in Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Tiffany Moss pulled out the warm batch from the oven and left them to cool on the kitchen worktop.

When they were ready, Tiffany and Eman tucked in with their two young children.

They were a picture of a perfect family, but in the bedroom nearby, the scent of the cookies was torture.

A young girl lay weak on a bed, stomach empty and her limbs just skin and bone after weeks of barely eating.

She wasn’t allowed to feast like the rest of her family – in fact, she didn’t feel like she was part of the family at all.
When pre-school teacher Tiffany and Eman got together, he already had daughter Emani from a previous relationship.

Emani’s mum had battled with addiction and, although she’d tried to get custody several times, they went against her and Emani stayed with her dad.

Tiffany and Eman married and went on to have two children together.

Tiffany was now Emani’s stepmother and with Eman working two jobs, she was home with the children more.

Emani was a sweet, gentle girl who loved to smile but Tiffany had no time for a daughter who wasn’t biologically hers.

She would message Eman at work, complaining that his daughter was constantly misbehaving.

It may have started off as Tiffany ignoring Emani and overlooking her so she could treat her own children better, but it quickly escalated to something far more serious.

In 2010, when Emani was six, her teachers reported some worries to social services and Tiffany was charged.

She ended up pleading guilty to hitting Emani with a belt…Continue Reading