Chapter 3: What Lily Heard Through the Door
I knelt beside Lily and took both her hands.
“You can tell me anything.”
Lily looked at Vanessa.
“She said I wouldn’t be living here after the wedding.”
Vanessa gave a sharp laugh.
“That is not what I said.”
“You said Daddy would be too busy for me.” Lily’s fingers tightened around mine.
“You said there was a school far away where children sleep all week.”
Several guests lowered their glasses.
“She means boarding school,” Vanessa said.
“We discussed it as one possible option.”
“No, we didn’t.”
“You forget half the conversations we have.”
Marguerite stepped closer.
“Lily told me about this two weeks ago.”
“And you kept it from him?” Vanessa snapped.
“She begged me not to tell because you said her father would be angry with her.”
Lily pressed herself against my shoulder.
Vanessa pointed at Marguerite.
“There.
That is exactly what she does.
She fills Lily’s head with nonsense, then pretends to protect her.”
“Stop blaming them,” I said.
“This conversation is between you and me.”
Vanessa’s eyes moved toward the guests.
“Then perhaps we shouldn’t have it in front of an audience.”
“You created the audience when you shouted at a child.”
Her father, Charles, cleared his throat near the drinks table.
“Perhaps everyone should go inside.”
“No,” I said.
“Nobody moves until Lily finishes.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“You don’t get to interrogate me.”
“I’m listening to my daughter.”
Lily drew a shaky breath.
“Vanessa said Mommy’s things would be gone too.”
My chest tightened.
“What things?”
“The blue box.
Mommy’s letters and the pictures from the hospital.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“That old box is upsetting her.
I suggested storing it somewhere safer.”
“You had no right to touch it.”
“I am about to become your wife.
This house will be mine too.”
I stood slowly.
“There isn’t going to be a wedding.”
A murmur passed across the lawn.
Vanessa blinked once.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Take off the ring.”
“You’re humiliating me because a frightened child misunderstood an adult conversation.”
“No.
I’m ending this because my child was frightened of the woman I planned to marry.”
Her face hardened.
“Be careful.
You have no idea what I have done to protect your reputation.”
“My reputation?”
“Who do you think explains your absences?
Who makes excuses when you disappear for work?
Everyone here knows Marguerite raises Lily while you play businessman.”
A man near the hedge lowered his eyes.
Vanessa had repeated the story often enough that some of them believed it.
I held out my hand.
“The ring.”
Vanessa pulled it off and pressed it into my palm hard enough to leave a mark.
“You will regret doing this publicly.”
Marguerite’s phone chimed in my other hand.
Vanessa’s gaze dropped to the screen, and all the color left her face.
A new message had appeared from a contact saved as Conrad Hale.
The guardianship petition is ready.
I attached his signed consent.
Once the marriage certificate is filed, the child can be placed immediately.
I looked from the message to Vanessa.
“What signed consent?”
She reached for the phone.
“Give me that.”
I stepped back and opened the attachment.
My name sat at the bottom of the final page.
May you like
The signature looked perfect.
I had never written it.
