Chapter 4 - WHAT LILY SAID
Nora brought in a child-interview specialist named Dr. Melissa Grant.
We sat in a room that looked nothing like a police station.
No uniforms.
No bright lights.
Lily held the same stuffed fox she had owned since kindergarten.
Dr. Grant asked, "Do you remember the Christmas party when you were five?"
Lily nodded.
"What do you remember most?"
"The chair."
My throat closed.
"What about it?"
"Victoria said it was a game."
"Did you want to play?"
"No."
"Did you say no?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
Lily picked at the fox's ear.
"Uncle Marcus said Daddy wouldn't come if I cried."
Nora and I exchanged a look.
"Did anyone say why they wanted your father to come?"
Lily thought.
"Grandpa said Daddy gets scary when people hurt me."
I stared at the floor.
Dr. Grant stayed calm.
"Did Grandpa say anything else?"
"He said the camera needed to see Daddy."
Then she said something that made Rachel sit forward.
"I told Grandma."
Dr. Grant gently asked, "Which grandma?"
"Grandma Evelyn."
Victoria's mother.
I had forgotten she arrived late that night.
Lily continued.
"I told her Grandpa made everybody do it."
"What did she do?"
"She yelled at them in the kitchen."
That explained the note.
LILY TALKED.
Victoria's mother had learned the truth.
Maybe she threatened to expose them.
Nora searched records.
Evelyn Shaw had died eight months after the party from a stroke.
But she had met with an attorney three days before Christmas.
That attorney was still practicing.
We called.
He remembered Evelyn.
"She was frightened," he said.
"About what?" Nora asked.
"A child."
My heart pounded.
"Did she leave anything?"
The attorney hesitated.
"Actually, yes."
A sealed affidavit.
Never filed.
Never opened.
Because Evelyn instructed that it be released only if someone tried to remove Lily from her father's care.
Nora looked at me.
"That condition never happened."
"Not legally."
The attorney brought the affidavit that evening.
Evelyn's signature was at the bottom.
May you like
Her first sentence read:
The party was not Victoria's idea.
