On our final morning, Lily slept upstairs while Tony loaded the rental car. At the front desk, the manager, Denise, handed me a sealed envelope.
“I thought your husband had already told you,” she said.
“Told me what?”
“A man named Robert paid for two of your arrangements. He arrived this morning and is waiting on the patio.”
Through the glass doors, I saw an older man holding our castle photograph.
Robert was Adam’s father.
After Adam’s funeral, Robert and I exchanged bitter letters. He accused me of keeping his granddaughter away; I accused him of disappearing when we needed him. He blamed grief, but I saw excuses. Eventually, the letters stopped.
I believed Robert wanted nothing to do with Lily; he believed I had shut him out.
I confronted Tony beside the car.
“You invited Robert here?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
Tony had found Robert’s final letter while searching for Lily’s birth certificate. It said we should call whenever Lily was ready.
Tony contacted him, and Robert arranged the character breakfast and beach equipment through the hotel.
“You brought him into our daughter’s final trip without asking me.”
“I didn’t know whether he was sincere.”
“Then why invite him?”
Tony’s eyes filled.
“Because Lily is running out of time.”
Robert had wanted to come earlier, but Tony refused. No meeting would happen unless Lily and I agreed. He arrived only to ask before the chance disappeared forever.
“I kept waiting for the perfect moment to tell you,” Tony said. “Then I realized we might not have another one.”
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
“Finding him may have come from love, but bringing him here was not your decision.”
“You’re right.”
Before I could answer, Lily’s voice came from behind us.
“Why are you whispering?”
She sat near the entrance in a wheelchair and pajamas after waking alone and calling reception.
I was furious with Tony, but the decision was no longer ours.
It belonged to Lily.
PART 3: EVERYONE WHO CAME FOR HER
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