Chapter 14 - The Interview Room With Yellow Walls
Andrea arranged for Lily to speak with a trained child-interview specialist. There would be no courtroom full of adults and no one demanding that she tell the same story again and again.
The room had yellow walls, crayons, and a little wooden house. I waited nearby with Noah while the interviewer let Lily choose where to sit.
Later, the interviewer shared what was appropriate for me to know. Lily had described being made to wash dishes, carry Noah, and repeat apologies she didn't understand. She said Vanessa told her she was responsible whenever Noah cried.
“Did Noah get hurt when you moved his stroller?” the interviewer asked on the recorded interview.
“I tried not to let him fall,” Lily said.
“Tell me about that.”
“His wheel was stuck. Vanessa said move it. I couldn't. She got mad.”
Lily paused, staring at the small wooden house.
“Daddy says she gets tired. So I have to be easier.”
When the interviewer asked what “easier” meant, Lily whispered, “Not ask for stuff.”
She also described a night Vanessa made her stand outside her bedroom because she'd asked for a picture of Julia. She believed her mother was angry with her, though Julia had died two years earlier.
When we came home, I opened the old photograph album I'd kept in my living-room cabinet.
“This was your mama,” I told her, pointing to a picture of Julia laughing in a rainstorm. “She loved you. Her death was an accident. It was never because of anything you did.”
Lily touched the photograph with one finger.
“Vanessa said Mommy went away because I was too much.”
“Vanessa was wrong.”
Lily's eyes filled.
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“Then why did Daddy let her say it?”
I could answer everything about Julia's love. I had no good answer about Daniel's silence.
