Chapter 3 - What Lily Had Been Hiding
Lily did not sleep.
At two in the morning, Daniel found light under her bedroom door.
He knocked.
“It’s me.”
Silence.
Then the lock clicked.
Lily opened the door halfway.
Owen was asleep in her bed, curled beneath a gray blanket with his stuffed fox pressed against his chest.
Daniel stayed in the hallway.
“Can I come in?”
Lily considered him.
Finally, she stepped aside.
Daniel sat on the small bench beneath her window.
Lily remained standing.
He noticed a faint mark still visible on her cheek.
His stomach turned.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not seeing what was happening.”
Lily looked toward Owen.
“And?”
Daniel understood.
“For hitting Marissa.”
“You scared him.”
“I know.”
“You scared me too.”
He nodded.
“I lost control. That doesn’t make it okay.”
Lily’s anger softened slightly, but not much.
“You always tell us not to hit people.”
“I do.”
“Then you did.”
“Yes.”
Daniel forced himself not to defend the moment.
He had spent the past few hours inventing excuses in his own head—Marissa hurt Lily, Owen was terrified, everything happened quickly.
None changed what his children had seen.
“If the police ask me, I’m going to tell them.”
Lily studied him.
“You are?”
“Yes.”
“Even if you get in trouble?”
“Yes.”
She looked surprised.
Daniel continued.
“I want you and Owen to tell the truth too. Not what protects me. Not what hurts Marissa. The truth.”
Lily sat on the edge of her desk chair.
“There’s more.”
Daniel went still.
“What do you mean?”
Lily looked embarrassed.
“Marissa has been… different when you’re gone.”
“How?”
“She makes rules.”
“What rules?”
“Sometimes Owen isn’t allowed to eat dessert if he cries.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“That’s not unusual discipline by itself, but—”
“She locked the pantry.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“She said he was sneaking snacks.”
“Was he?”
“No.”
Lily lowered her voice.
“She also takes my phone.”
“You have screen limits.”
“Not because of screen limits. She checks my messages.”
Daniel stared.
“Did you tell her she could?”
“No.”
“Did I?”
“No.”
“What else?”
Lily’s eyes filled.
“She told me you were thinking about sending me to boarding school.”
Daniel stood.
“What?”
“She said I made it impossible for you to move on.”
“I have never said that.”
“I know that now.”
“Lily, I have never even thought about sending you away.”
“She said you wanted a fresh start after the wedding.”
Daniel felt physically ill.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because when I tried before, you said she was trying.”
He remembered.
Three months earlier Lily had complained that Marissa was controlling.
Daniel had told her relationships took adjustment.
He had thought he was teaching patience.
Instead, he had taught his daughter that he would reinterpret her fear as resistance.
Lily opened a drawer.
She removed a small notebook.
“I started writing things down.”
Daniel accepted it.
Dates.
Times.
Comments.
MARISSA TOOK OWEN’S GAME BECAUSE HE CALLED MOM “MOM” AT DINNER.
MARISSA SAID DAD WOULD CHOOSE HER IF I MADE HIM CHOOSE.
MARISSA SAID SHE’LL CONTROL THE HOUSE AFTER THEY’RE MARRIED.
One entry was underlined.
MARISSA ASKED WHERE DAD KEEPS MOM’S OLD PAPERS.
Daniel looked up.
“When?”
“Last week.”
“What exactly did she ask?”
“She wanted to know if Mom had a journal.”
“Why?”
“She said she wanted photographs for the wedding.”
Daniel looked again at Owen.
The gold frame.
The attic.
Marissa’s terror.
“What were you doing in the attic today?”
Lily answered carefully.
“Owen has a family-history project.”
“He’s seven.”
“It’s just a poster. Photos of relatives.”
Daniel nodded.
“We went up looking for pictures of Mom.”
“In what box?”
“The cedar trunk.”
Daniel’s head came up.
The trunk had belonged to Clara.
He hadn’t opened it since the first year after her death.
“Was it locked?”
Lily nodded.
“How did you open it?”
“The little key was taped under the bottom.”
Daniel had never known that.
“Did Marissa know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What else was inside?”
“Photo albums. Old notebooks. A blue envelope.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What blue envelope?”
Lily frowned.
“I didn’t open it. I put everything back except the picture Owen wanted.”
“Where is it?”
“In the trunk.”
Daniel stood immediately.
Lily followed him to the attic.
Dust floated in the beam of his phone flashlight.
The cedar trunk sat beneath the sloping roof.
Daniel found the key exactly where Lily had described.
Inside were Clara’s college notebooks, photographs, old tax records, birthday cards.
Then he found the blue envelope.
His name was written across the front.
DANIEL.
The handwriting was Clara’s.
His hands began to shake.
Lily whispered, “Dad?”
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Daniel,
If you ever read this, it means I didn’t get the chance to explain something myself.
There is a woman from my past named Marissa Voss.
Daniel stopped.
Lily read over his shoulder.
“That’s her.”
Marissa’s legal surname was Vale.
Or at least that was the name Daniel knew.
He continued.
I made a mistake years ago by protecting her from consequences. She has contacted me again. This time she knows about you and the children.
Do not trust her if she comes near our family.
Daniel’s knees nearly gave way.
At the bottom Clara had written one final sentence.
May you like
If she tells you we were friends, she is leaving out the most important part.
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