***
After the last guest left, I asked Lily to sit with me at the living room table.
My hands were shaking. I set the box down between us.
“Can you explain this to me?”
She looked inside. Her face turned white. Then the tears started.
My hands were shaking.
“Dad, you weren’t supposed to find out like this.”
“Find out what, Lily? Because it looks like you’ve been meeting with a man behind my back. It looks like you’ve been hiding money. It looks like you’ve been planning to leave.”
“I wasn’t planning to leave. I would never!”
“Then why the secret account? Why the man in the suit? Why the folder you shoved under the counter last week when I walked in?”
“Find out what, Lily?”
My daughter reached for my hand. I pulled it back. I didn’t mean to. It just happened.
“Please just listen to me,” she whispered.
“I’ve been listening all these years. And tonight, on your birthday, somebody left this on our porch. Somebody who knew exactly what was in it.”
“I don’t know who sent that. I swear I don’t!”
I pulled it back.
I stood up. The living room felt too small. My chest felt too tight.
“I need you to go and stay at Rachel’s tonight. Just for tonight. I can’t think straight.”
“Dad, please!”
