Chapter 19 - The Day They Went Home
Lily left the hospital on a cold Thursday morning.
Sarah dressed her in a yellow coat.
Felix carried the pink backpack.
Lily insisted on walking between them.
Reporters waited outside.
Hospital security offered a private exit.
Sarah considered it.
Then Lily asked, “Are they here because of Dad?”
Felix smiled.
“Some of them.”
“And Mommy?”
“Definitely.”
Lily frowned.
“Are we in trouble?”
Sarah knelt.
“No.”
“Then why should we hide?”
Felix and Sarah looked at each other.
Six years old.
And somehow she had found the simplest answer.
They walked out the front entrance.
Felix did not answer business questions.
Sarah did not discuss Celeste.
Lily waved once because she thought the cameras might be for television.
Then they entered Felix’s car.
He no longer had a company driver.
He had sold the Manhattan penthouse to fund part of the restructuring.
He was moving into a smaller apartment.
Lily found this fascinating.
“Does it have stairs?”
“One set.”
“Does it have a pool?”
“No.”
“A movie theater?”
“No.”
She looked horrified.
“Dad.”
Sarah laughed.
Felix smiled.
“I know.”
“What do rich people do without a movie theater?”
“Apparently we watch television.”
Lily considered this tragedy.
At Sarah’s temporary apartment, Felix carried her bag upstairs.
He stopped at the door.
For seven years, thresholds had defined them.
The apartment Sarah could not enter.
The restaurant where she had been erased.
The boardroom she was dragged into.
The hospital room he almost lost Lily in.
Now this doorway belonged to Sarah.
Felix waited.
“Do you want to come inside?”
She asked.
He looked surprised.
“For dinner.”
Sarah added quickly.
“Lily wants pizza.”
“Pizza?”
Lily appeared behind her.
“Mom says you cook fancy food.”
“I do.”
“So pizza should be easy.”
Felix looked at Sarah.
Sarah shrugged.
“She has a point.”
He entered.
That evening, no one discussed mergers.
No one discussed inheritance.
No one discussed Celeste.
They ate pizza at a small kitchen table.
Lily fell asleep on the couch halfway through a movie.
Felix covered her with a blanket.
Sarah stood beside him.
“You can’t make up six years in six weeks.”
“I know.”
“You can’t arrive and become the father she imagined overnight.”
“I know.”
“And you and I are not suddenly fixed because the truth came out.”
Felix looked at her.
“I know that too.”
Sarah nodded.
“Good.”
He started toward the door.
“Felix.”
He turned.
Sarah looked down at Lily.
“You can come tomorrow.”
Something changed in his face.
Not triumph.
Gratitude.
“I will.”
As he left, Sarah picked up Lily’s backpack.
A folded piece of paper fell from the front pocket.
It was a drawing.
Three people standing beside a small restaurant.
One was labeled Mommy.
One was labeled Me.
The third was labeled Dad.
Above them, Lily had written one sentence in uneven purple letters.
Maybe this is the beginning we should have had.
Sarah pressed the paper against her chest.
May you like
For once, the future did not frighten her.
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