I sat in my car for a long time.
Jillian had wanted something.
Then it clicked.
It could be that she’d twisted the truth into a weapon. She’d stolen a copy of the paperwork Lily had been quietly working on and rewritten it into a lie.
David had only revealed that Lily had meant to buy back the years my job had taken from us.
It seemed my daughter hadn’t been hiding betrayal from me. She’d been hiding a gift.
And I had thrown her out of the house for it.
I started the car and drove toward Rachel’s.
She’d stolen a copy of the paperwork.
***
Lily was sitting on the front steps in an oversized sweatshirt, her eyes swollen from crying.
I sat down next to her and didn’t say anything for a long moment.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I should’ve listened before I accused you of anything.”
Lily wiped her face with her sleeve.
Her eyes swollen from crying.
“I heard you and Mark in the kitchen,” she said quietly. “Months ago. You told him you were burning out, that your back hurt every shift. That you didn’t know how much longer you could keep going.”
“Lily…”
“So I picked up extra shifts. I found a lawyer pro bono. I wanted to change my name to yours before my birthday, put the money into a trust, and continue adding to it, so you could stop working so hard.”
“So I picked up extra shifts.”
I felt something crack open in my chest.
“You don’t owe me any of that, baby.”
“I know I don’t owe you,” she said. “That’s why I wanted to.”
I pulled her into a hug, and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Years of quiet fear that she’d one day walk away just melted right off my shoulders.
“I never needed repayment, sweetheart. I only ever needed you.”
“That’s why I wanted to.”
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