Chapter 1: The Dress Sewn in Secret
My 16-year-old daughter stayed up all night sewing a dress for her classmate — the next morning, the girl’s mother asked, "Do you know why she really did it?"
Since my husband passed away, it’s been only me and Lily.
I couldn’t provide her everything, but I made sure she never doubted she was loved.
Lily loved to sew and dreamed of becoming a fashion designer.
But for the past several nights, she had been staying up late, working on a dress that wasn’t for her.
"Sweetheart, it’s nearly one.
Can’t this wait?" I asked, drawing up a chair beside her.
"Annie’s singing in the school concert, Mom.
Her mother can’t afford a dress."
Annie was a student in her grade whose mother cleaned offices at night.
Lily flexed her weary fingers, then picked up her needle again.
"The boys already laugh at what she wears.
Yesterday, she asked the teacher if she could sing from behind the curtain."
"Oh, honey…"
"I want her to wear something she doesn’t have to hide in." Lily spread the skirt over her knees.
"She has such a pretty voice, Mom.
You should hear her."
Then she packed the blue cardigan her father had bought her.
I reached for it, but she pulled the bag away.
"She can have this, too."
I took her to school.
She was so eager to help Annie.
That afternoon, I waited for Lily to tell me how it had gone.
Instead, she came home with puffy eyes and slammed her bedroom door.
"Did someone say something about the dress?"
"Please, Mom.
Leave it."
I made her favorite grilled cheese.
She didn’t touch it.
Later, I heard her crying, but when I knocked, she snapped, "I said I don’t want to talk!"
I thought Annie had refused the dress or said something hurtful to Lily.
But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
The doorbell woke me the following morning.
A woman waited on the porch beside a thin girl wearing that blue cardigan.
Something about the girl’s face was strangely familiar, though I couldn’t place it.
"Is Lily home?" the woman asked.
"Yes, but it’s six in the morning.
What happened?
I’m her mother."
Her chin trembled.
"You don’t know why Lily really gave Annie that dress?"
"To help her.
Lily told me what’s been happening at school."
The woman began to cry and held out a small box.
The moment I saw it, I turned pale.
"You don’t know your daughter at all," she whispered.
"I’m sorry I have to tell you this…"
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What truth made Lily cry—and why did Annie’s mother come at dawn?
Comment “TRUTH” for Part 2.
