Chapter 12 - What Lily Remembered
Lily was sitting on the floor of her bedroom, arranging colored pencils by shade, when I asked if she remembered the woman at the pool carrying an envelope. I kept my voice soft and stayed by the door so she wouldn't feel trapped.
"I don't want you to be mad," she said.
"I'm not mad at you. Not for any of this."
She turned a pencil between her fingers. "Celeste told me Mommy's locket was outside. She said if I found it, I could keep it in my room. She said you were going to put all Mommy's things away after the wedding."
My chest tightened. "Did she tell you to go to the pool?"
"She said it was by the roses. I didn't know the gate was open. I thought she was behind me, but when I turned, she wasn't there."
"Did you see her leave?"
Lily nodded. "She was on the path. She looked at me, but she didn't come back. Then I slipped. I called for help. Nora came."
I sat beside her, careful not to touch her until she leaned into my side. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Celeste said you would think I was lying. She said you were tired of hearing about Mommy, and if I made trouble, you'd send me to boarding school."
The words landed with a terrible precision. I had told Lily I needed quiet when she asked about Emily. I had called her questions repetitive. Celeste had taken those moments and built a threat out of them.
Lily reached under her pillow and pulled out a folded piece of paper. It was a drawing of the pool gate, with a little figure in a blue scarf beside it.
May you like
At the bottom she had written: She said don't tell Dad.
After she spoke, Lily asked whether she had done something bad by going outside. I told her she had made a risky choice, but that did not make the grown-up who sent her there any less responsible. She listened carefully, as if she were learning the difference between a mistake and a trap.
