My Family Chose Her And Lost Me Forever Chapter 08
Three months later, Lily came home for winter break.
She wheeled her case through the front door and the room felt wrong.
Mom was on the couch. Didn’t jump up to take her case. Didn’t get up at all.
Lily set the case down and smiled.
“Mom — I’m home.”
Mom looked up at her.
Her eyes had changed.
The way Mom used to look at Lily — like she was something fragile, something owed — that light was gone.
Lily set her bag down and sat beside her.
“Mom? What’s wrong? Is it — is Anna still not back?”
The name landed and Mom’s eyes filled.
Ryan spoke, flat and quiet.
“Lily. The police closed your dad’s case.”
She turned her head.
“He wasn’t hit by the scaffold, Lil. He loosened the bolts himself. He was trying to fake a workplace injury for the settlement. Gambling debts. He got the load wrong and it came down on him for real.”
Lily’s face went white.
“That’s — that isn’t — my dad wouldn’t—”
“Records. Phone. Bank. Middleman’s statement. All checks out.”
Lily stood up. Her hands were shaking.
“My dad wouldn’t — he — he wouldn’t do that—”
She started to cry.
“You’re — you’re just taking it out on me because Anna’s gone — I didn’t do anything, I didn’t—”
She was sobbing now.
“Did I ask you to bring me here? I was eleven, I didn’t know anything, you said this was my home, I believed you—”
She dropped into a crouch, arms around her knees.
Mom watched her.
Seven years of habit is heavy.
She got up, went over, crouched down, and put her arms around her.
“Lily — your dad is your dad. It isn’t your fault. You’re still ours.”
Dad walked in from the porch and stood in the middle of the room, looking at all of it. When Mom finally let Lily go, he cleared his throat.
“Lily is not her father. That’s the end of it.”
That night Lily went upstairs for a shower. She left her phone on the coffee table.
Screen lit up. Text preview.
Contact name: a heart.
Ryan was walking past and glanced down.
Lily, remember what Mom told you. Don’t ever let them—
The rest of the message was folded.
Ryan stopped.
That wasn’t Mom’s photo. So who was calling herself Lily’s mother?
Lily’s real mother had walked out years before the accident. As far as Ryan had ever been told, she was long gone.
Wasn’t she?