Chapter 18 - A Letter Lily Didn't Owe
The request went through lawyers and the child-protection team. Lily's therapist explained that the child did not have to read a letter, answer it, or provide forgiveness to make an adult feel better.
"What does it say?" Lily asked.
"We haven't accepted it," Ethan answered. "You get to decide whether you want to know."
She thought for a while. "Not now. Maybe when I'm older."
That was the end of the discussion. No one brought the letter to her room.
The legal case moved slowly. Records had to be reviewed, witnesses interviewed, and evidence challenged. Some online commenters grew bored and moved on. Lily's nights remained difficult. She sometimes woke certain Vivienne was standing by the bed, and I sat with her while she checked the room and found it empty.
One evening I told Ethan I'd enrolled in evening classes toward a credential in family support work. "I can't keep pretending the only job I'll ever have is here. I want to help children who don't have a house full of people to listen."
"Will you leave us?" he asked.
"Eventually, maybe. But if I do, I'll tell Lily properly. I won't disappear."
He nodded. "I won't stand in your way."
A few weeks later, Vivienne agreed to a negotiated resolution after her attorneys reviewed the evidence. The prosecutor would still have to present the agreement to a judge. Graham's financial case followed its own process; neither man's nor woman's guilt could be established by another person's accusation alone.
Ethan read the notice at the kitchen counter while Lily practiced spelling words beside him.
"Is the bad part over?" she asked.
May you like
He set the paper down. "A big part might be. The rest of getting better is going to take longer."
Lily wrote one word at the top of her page: TOMORROW.
