Chapter 4 - The Things Lily Learned
At the clinic, Lily sat on the exam table with fresh bandages across the raw places on her palms.
Beth stood by the window.
When I came in, my daughter tucked her hands beneath her legs.
“You don’t have to hide them,” I said.
“I got stuff on the floor.”
“You didn’t cause this.”
She looked at Beth, as if checking whether that answer was safe to believe.
The doctor had found no serious physical injury. She explained that fear could show up in sleep, behavior, stomachaches, and accidents.
I listened.
This time, I listened without searching for a version that would make me feel better.
On the drive to Beth’s house, Lily fell asleep with her cheek against the seat belt cushion.
At a red light, I looked at her in the mirror.
“Did you see something?” I asked my sister.
Beth stared ahead.
“I saw she was quieter.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I did.”
The light changed.
I remembered.
A Sunday lunch. Beth saying Lily seemed nervous. Me answering that change was hard and Eleanor was doing her best.
“I should’ve pushed,” Beth said.
“I should’ve heard you.”
Neither of us said anything after that.
That evening, Lily woke up hungry.
Beth made grilled cheese and tomato soup. Lily ate half a sandwich, then folded the other half inside her napkin.
“You can finish it,” Beth said.
“I’m saving it.”
“For later?”
Lily nodded.
“There will be more later.”
My daughter’s eyes stayed on the wrapped bread.
“If I’m good?”
Beth turned toward the stove.
I sat down slowly.
“There will be food whether you’re good, upset, messy, or mad at me. You never have to earn dinner.”
Lily looked skeptical.
I deserved that skepticism. I had let somebody teach her otherwise.
After she went to bed, I showed Beth the photograph.
She studied it.
“Grace had a baby?”
“I don’t know.”
“Richard—”
“I know what it looks like.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Eleanor.
A photograph of a bank form.
My name appeared above the signature line.
Below it was a withdrawal from Lily’s education account.
Forty-eight thousand dollars.
May you like
Then came another message.
You should check what you signed before you call me a criminal.
