From A Humiliating Bet To The Boss He Can’t Have Chapter 32
Half a year later, Lily came to Chicago again.
This time she wasn’t there to apologize, and she wasn’t carrying evidence.
She had only a travel bag on her back, and she asked if I had time that weekend.
“We have a career interview assignment for school.”
“I want to interview you.”
I was a little surprised.
“Why me?”
“Because the teacher said we should choose someone who has genuinely influenced us.”
Then she hurried to add, “If you’re busy, I can ask someone else.”
I checked my schedule.
“Saturday morning.”
On the day of the interview, she brought more than ten questions.
The first ones were all about the project and management.
But the last one was:
“If you could go back four years, would you still take care of me?”
I looked at her.
“Yes.”
Her eyes reddened.
“Even if you knew you would leave in the end?”
“Taking care of you wasn’t the mistake.”
“The mistake was giving up myself again and again just to become someone else’s approved version of family.”
I paused.
“Those are two different things.”
Lily lowered her head and wrote that down. For a long time, she said nothing.
Later, she turned the interview into a school assignment.
The title was A Life That Doesn’t Need to Pass a Test.
She didn’t mention Grant.
She didn’t mention Sloane, either.
At the end, she wrote only this:
[Real family will not demand that you sacrifice everything until there is nothing left before they recognize your sincerity.]
Grant saw that line in the copy the school mailed home.
He sat in his study looking at it for a long time.
That day, he did not message me again.
He did not ask his lawyer to send me anything, either.
At last, he had learned to respect my refusal.
But that respect had come too late.
So late that I no longer needed it.