My hands were shaking. I put the box between us.
Can you explain this to me?
He looked inside. His face paled. Then the tears started.
My hands were shaking.
“Dad, you shouldn’t have heard like that.”
“Find out what, Lily? Because you seem to have been meeting a man behind my back. Looks like you've been hiding money. You seem to have been planning to leave.”
“I had no plans to leave. I would never do that!”
“Then why the secret account? Why the man in the suit? Why the briefcase you put under the counter last week when I walked in?”
“Find out what, Lily?”
My daughter contacted me. I attracted her back. It was not my intention. It just happened.
“Please listen to me,” he whispered.
“I’ve been listening all these years. And tonight, on your birthday, someone left it on our balcony. Someone who knew exactly what was inside.”
“I don’t know who sent this. I swear not to you!”
I pushed him away.
I got up. The living room seemed too small. His chest was too tight.
“I need you to go to sleep at Rachel’s tonight. Just for today. I can’t think clearly.”
“Dad, please!”
“Go, Lily. I beg you.”
He took his jacket and bag and left. I heard the door close gently, the way it was always closed, careful not to wake anyone up. That's when I collapsed forever.
“I need you to leave.”
For the next three days, I barely slept.
I called saying I wasn't going to work in two shifts. Mark showed up with coffee and said he looked horrible.
“Because I’m hell,” I said.
I left everything in the box on the dining table.
Mark said the man in the suit had a business card glued to the back of the photo.
Reeves and Associates, Estate Planning.
I barely slept.
The next morning, I drove there.
The soft-spoken man, David, was a lawyer who was taking me into his office. I slipped the photo over his desk.
“I need to know what my daughter is doing to you.”
He watched me for a long time.
“Sir, I can’t share the details of a client’s file. But I can tell you this: whatever you think you see, you are wrong. Go home. Talk to her.”
I slipped the photo over his desk.
