Chapter 15 - WHAT GRANT SAID
Grant stepped toward the microphones.
His lawyer tried to stop him.
Grant moved past him.
"No," he said. "I did not know Vivian planned Amelia's death."
Cameras clicked.
"But I knew my daughter was afraid in my own home. I knew she was being treated in ways that made me uncomfortable. And instead of protecting her, I told myself discipline was not my department."
Grant's voice cracked.
"That is the truth I can prove about myself. It is ugly enough."
Dante watched from twenty feet away.
Board members resigned and commentators called him negligent.
But Lily's therapist later told Rebecca something unexpected.
"She saw part of the clip."
Rebecca stiffened. "Who showed her?"
"No one intentionally. It was playing on a waiting-room television."
"How did she react?"
The therapist smiled sadly.
"She said, 'Daddy finally told the truth.'"
That evening, Lily had her first supervised visit with Grant.
Dante did not attend. Rebecca did.
Grant brought no gifts.
No toys.
No candy.
He sat on a carpet while Lily built a wooden train track.
For ten minutes, she ignored him.
Then she handed him one curved piece.
"This goes here."
"Okay."
He put it in the wrong place.
Lily frowned.
"No, Daddy."
He moved it.
"Like this?"
"Yes."
For the first time since the party, she smiled at him.
Then Lily asked, "Why didn't you pick me up?"
Grant could have explained.
He could have said he was distracted, confused, manipulated, embarrassed.
"Because I was being a bad dad," he said.
"Are you still?"
May you like
Grant opened his mouth.
And that was when Rebecca realized the next part of this story would be harder than putting anyone in prison.
