Chapter 14 - THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR
Mrs. Hall met us at Lily's school the next morning.
She looked furious with herself.
"I should have pushed harder."
"Tell me what Lily told you."
Mrs. Hall opened a file.
Three months earlier, Lily had drawn a picture of a girl standing outside a house while two adults watched from a window.
Above the girl, she wrote:
GOOD GIRLS DON'T MAKE DAD SAD.
Mrs. Hall asked what it meant.
Lily told her Vanessa sometimes made her stand alone in the mudroom until she could "fix her face" and stop looking upset.
The counselor called my number.
Vanessa answered.
"She said she was Lily's stepmother and that you were aware of everything," Mrs. Hall said. "Then she sent me a letter from a therapist saying Lily had a habit of exaggerating family conflict."
One of the forged letters.
"Why didn't you call again?"
Mrs. Hall looked down.
"I did. Twice. Both calls went to voicemail. Then your number disappeared from Lily's emergency contact portal and Vanessa's became primary."
I had never authorized that.
Mrs. Hall handed me another page.
It was a note Lily wrote during a classroom exercise about safe adults.
My aunt Jenna listens.
Mrs. Hall listens.
Dad listens when Vanessa isn't there.
That last line broke something in me.
Lily sat beside me, swinging her feet under the chair.
I turned toward her.
"You were right."
She blinked.
"About what?"
"I listened differently when Vanessa was there."
Her eyes filled.
"I thought if I made you mad at her, you'd be mad at me too."
"You never have to protect my marriage."
She nodded, but I knew words alone were cheap now.
Mrs. Hall slid one final envelope across the desk.
"Lily gave me this two weeks ago and asked me not to open it unless she disappeared from school."
My hands went cold.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
May you like
At the top, Lily had written:
IF I HAVE TO GO TO BRIARWOOD, PLEASE CALL MY DAD AND TELL HIM I DID NOT WANT TO GO.
