Lily shook her head.
“You made me think she hated me.”
She looked at her father.
“Do you know how many times I wondered what I’d done wrong?”
Sam couldn’t answer.
I remembered every Christmas I’d asked whether Lily might visit.
Every birthday Sam told me to leave her alone.
Every time I’d wondered what I’d done wrong.
Lily looked at Vanessa.
“Mom, you knew?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No, sweetheart.”
Patricia suddenly spoke.
“Well, Rachel was never your mother anyway.”
Vanessa turned.
“Enough.”
Patricia stared.
“Vanessa!”
“No. You don’t get to use my daughter to punish another woman.”
Lily looked at her grandmother.
“Did you know Dad was lying?”
Patricia looked at Sam.
“You told me Rachel was the reason Lily stayed away.”
Sam said nothing.
Patricia stared at him.
For eight years, she’d blamed me for the distance her own son had created.
Lily wiped her cheeks.
“You never asked me, Grandma.”
Nobody answered.
She set the wrapped present on the table.
“I bought you this, Dad.”
Sam reached for it.
Lily snatched the box back against her chest.
“But I don’t want to give it to you.”
For years, I might have comforted him.
Not tonight.
I picked up my handbag.
“Rachel,” he whispered.
“Please don’t leave.”
I looked at the man I’d loved for eight years.
“You let me believe your daughter hated me.”
“I was scared.”
“And you let her believe I hated her.”
He reached for my hand.
I moved away.
“You were willing to lose both of us rather than admit you’d lied.”
Vanessa stood beside Lily.
Patricia started crying too.
But nobody went to comfort her.
I walked outside.
A moment later, Lily followed.
“Rachel?”
I turned.
She held the wrapped present against her chest.
“Did you really want me at your wedding?”
My throat tightened.
“More than you know.”
She looked down.
“Why would Dad say you didn’t?”
I remembered the church.
The flowers.
The music.
And the front row I’d kept glancing toward.
Hoping.
Waiting.
“I saved you a seat,” I whispered.
Lily looked up.
“What?”
“At our wedding. I asked them to leave one chair empty.”
