Chapter 2 - What Lily Had Been Told
When I stepped out of the bathroom, Emily was sitting on the edge of the bed.
She took one look at my face.
“What happened?”
I told her everything Mark had said.
Not dramatically.
Not carefully.
Just the truth.
By the time I finished, Emily had gone completely still.
Her hand moved unconsciously to her bruised cheek.
“They talked to Lily?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Her eyes filled immediately.
Not with tears for herself.
With fear for our daughter.
Emily turned toward the bed.
Lily was awake.
She was lying beneath the motel blanket with her eyes open.
She had heard enough.
“Sweetheart.”
Emily crossed the room.
Lily sat up slowly.
“Did Grandma say bad things about Mommy because she hates her?”
I felt something break inside me.
I sat beside her.
“Lily, did Grandma talk to you about Mommy?”
She looked at her hands.
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily swallowed hard.
“What did she say?”
Lily’s lips trembled.
“She said you weren’t raised right.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“She said Daddy had a different life before he met you.”
Lily looked at me.
“And Aunt Vanessa said sometimes people marry someone because they feel sorry for them.”
I had to look away.
There are moments when anger feels hot.
This was not one of them.
This anger was ice.
Patient.
Clear.
Dangerous.
“Did they ask you to keep these conversations secret?”
Lily nodded.
My stomach turned.
“Grandma said grown-up family conversations could hurt Mommy’s feelings.”
Emily reached for Lily.
Our daughter immediately crawled into her arms.
Then Lily whispered something else.
“Grandma told me Daddy might need my help someday.”
I leaned forward.
“What kind of help?”
“She asked me if I would want to stay with Daddy if Mommy went somewhere else.”
Emily froze.
I felt my pulse pounding behind my eyes.
“What did you say?”
“I said I wanted Mommy too.”
Lily began crying.
“And Grandma got mad.”
Emily pulled her tighter.
“You did nothing wrong.”
Lily buried her face against her mother.
That was when her next sentence changed the entire morning.
“I told Grandma I heard Aunt Vanessa talking about papers.”
I looked at Emily.
Then back at Lily.
“What papers?”
Lily sniffed.
“The ones in Grandpa’s desk.”
My father had been dead for thirteen years.
His desk was still inside my mother’s home office.
May you like
And suddenly, Mark’s warning made sense.
Whatever my mother wanted me to sign had started long before Christmas dinner.
