Chapter 2 - “Again?”
I stared at Lily.
“What do you mean, again?”
Her eyes immediately dropped to the floor.
Vanessa spoke first.
“She’s upset. Don’t put ideas in her head.”
I turned so fast Vanessa stepped backward.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Mark—”
“Claire.”
My sister moved beside Lily.
“Yeah?”
“Take her upstairs. Clean her up. Stay with her.”
Claire nodded.
Vanessa grabbed my arm.
“No. We are not turning this into some dramatic interrogation.”
I pulled free.
“You’re done telling me what happens with my daughter.”
Vanessa’s mother, Diane, stepped forward.
“This has gone far enough.”
I looked at her.
“Your daughter attacked a child.”
Diane’s mouth tightened.
“She put cake in her hair.”
“She humiliated her.”
“She made a mistake.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“A mistake? Apparently I’m a monster now.”
I said nothing.
Sometimes silence says more.
Guests began collecting their coats.
Parents took their children toward the door.
Vanessa noticed.
“Oh, great. Everybody leave. Thanks for making my fiancé look insane at his daughter’s birthday.”
“My ex-fiancé,” I said.
Her face changed again.
There it was.
That flash of hate.
Then she smiled.
Too quickly.
“Fine.”
She picked up her purse.
“You want space? Take space.”
She headed for the door, then stopped beside me.
“But when you calm down, you’re going to realize you threw away three years because a six-year-old got frosting in her hair.”
I leaned close.
“No. I threw away three years because it took me this long to see you clearly.”
She left.
I locked the door behind her.
Then I ran upstairs.
Lily was sitting on the edge of my bed wrapped in a towel.
Claire was brushing frosting from her hair.
The pink birthday dress lay crumpled on the bathroom floor.
Lily looked tiny in one of my old T-shirts.
I sat beside her.
“Sweetheart, I need to ask you something.”
Claire stopped brushing.
Lily’s shoulders tightened.
“Did Vanessa ever do something like this when I wasn’t around?”
Lily said nothing.
My heartbeat got louder.
“Baby, you won’t get in trouble.”
“She said I would.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“Who?”
“Vanessa.”
Claire’s eyes met mine.
“What did she say?”
Lily picked at the edge of the towel.
“She said if I told you stuff, you’d think I was trying to ruin the wedding.”
I could barely speak.
“What stuff?”
“She threw away Mom’s picture.”
My entire body froze.
Lily’s mother, Sarah, had died four years earlier.
Lily had exactly three framed pictures of her in her bedroom.
“What picture?”
“The one by my bed.”
“That frame broke months ago,” I said. “Vanessa told me you knocked it down.”
Lily shook her head.
“She did.”
My hands curled into fists.
“What else?”
Lily’s voice became smaller.
“She said when you marry her, I have to stop talking about Mommy because it makes Vanessa feel like she’s second place.”
Claire whispered, “Jesus.”
I forced myself to stay calm.
“Anything else?”
Lily looked at the closed bedroom door.
Then she whispered, “Sometimes she locks me in my room.”
The air left my lungs.
“What?”
“When I’m bad.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does she leave the house?”
Lily started crying.
I pulled her against me.
“No, no. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
“She said you told her she could.”
“I never told her that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Claire walked toward the window.
“Mark.”
Her voice sounded strange.
I looked over.
Vanessa’s car was still parked across the street.
She hadn’t left.
She was sitting inside it.
Watching the house.
Then my phone buzzed.
May you like
A text from Vanessa appeared.
You better get Lily’s story straight before the police hear mine.
