Chapter 17 - The Birthday Redo
Three months after the ruined party, Lily asked for another cake.
Not another party.
Just cake.
“Chocolate,” she said.
“No pink roses?”
“Never again.”
We invited six people.
Mason, because Lily thought he was “the camera guy who told the truth.”
That was Lily’s choice.
No dramatic apology at the door.
She stood in the kitchen holding pancake mix.
“I thought maybe tomorrow morning.”
Lily said:
“Okay.”
Carol cried in the bathroom later.
The evening stayed simple.
No family-company guests.
Lily blew out eight candles again.
“Can we eat it before anybody falls into it?”
Everyone froze for half a second.
Then Lily laughed harder.
Trauma does strange things.
Sometimes the first reclaimed moment arrives as a joke.
After the girls went upstairs, Carol sat across from me.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I failed her.”
“Yes.”
Then:
“I failed you too.”
“Yes.”
“I kept telling myself it was temporary.”
“The money?”
“The lies. All of it.”
“Temporary harm still happens.”
Then asked if she could visit Lily once a month with us present.
I said we would discuss it with Lily’s therapist.
When she left, Mark locked the door and leaned against it.
“That went better than I expected.”
“Low bar.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not making forgiveness a performance.”
I looked at the small cake on the counter.
We had stopped performing.
That was the biggest change.
Then my phone buzzed.
One final trust issue.
The developer who had offered $1.4 million for the lake property had increased the offer.
$2 million.
“What do we do?”
I smiled.
“For once?”
May you like
He waited.
“We ask what Lily wants when she’s old enough to understand the question.”
