Daniel’s face paled.
“I told her she was going to that school.”
I got up so fast that my chair rolled back.
“I got tired of pretending.”
For a second, I couldn't speak.
Paul didn't just know Daniel had come back.
All those times I'd told her how much Lily looked like Maggie... the night she asked me to stop talking about her.
He knew there was an explanation.
Now I needed to know why my husband had seen me cry Lily's death and had opted for silence.
He knew there was an explanation.
I turned to Lily.
She was crying again.
“Did you know that too?”
His chin trembled. “Not at first.”
Daniel said, “Lily...”
“No,” he said, drying his face. I'm sick of everyone talking for me.
“At first no.”
I looked at her.
“When did you know?”
“A few weeks after I started your class, I saw a picture at Grandma’s house. You and Maggie.”
I sat down again.
“Dad told me you were Uncle Paul’s wife. He told me not to mention it because things were complicated.”
“When did you know?”
Daniel rubbed his face with both hands.
“I told him not to get in. I didn’t understand that Paul hadn’t told you anything.”
“I thought you knew at first,” he said. Then I realized that no. And one day you looked at me when I picked up my hair and just...
She stopped.
“I thought you knew at the beginning, too.”
“What?”
You looked sad. I knew it then,” he whispered.
I covered my mouth. Daniel cursed.
She turned against him.
“You and Mom were telling me that adults would take care of everything,” she said in a sharper voice. But no one took care of anything.
He was right. And I no longer wanted to let the men in our family decide when the truth suited them.
“But no one took care of anything.”
That afternoon I called Paul.
“Daniel and Lily are home. Come home.”
“Rachel—”
“No. You can explain it to me when you arrive.”
I hung up.
When Paul arrived, Daniel was sitting in our living room.
“No. You can explain it to me when you arrive.”
The brothers looked at each other.
Paul's face broke down.
“Did you put her in this?”
I stood up.
“She’s already in it.”
Lily was sitting next to Daniel, stiff and pale.
