Chapter 2: What Lily Was Holding
I started small.
I told Dad about Mason's birthday the year before, when Claire had bought him a new bike and told me the budget was tight.
I told him about the school trip I missed because Claire forgot to hand in the permission slip, and how Mason's was always returned the same day.
I told him about the Christmas morning when I came downstairs and found three piles of gifts and one of them had my name on it but was mostly things that belonged to Mason the year before.
Dad sat very still.
He didn't interrupt once.
When I finished, he was quiet for a long moment.
Then he said, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
I didn't know how to explain that Claire had made it feel impossible.
That every time I had tried, she had already spoken to him first.
That I had learned, without anyone teaching me, that the truth from me always arrived after her version.
Then we heard footsteps on the stairs.
Claire opened the bedroom door without knocking.
She looked at my father and said, very calmly, "I think Ethan is upset and exaggerating.
He's had a long day."
Dad looked at her.
Then he said something I had never heard him say before.
"Claire.
Close the door and wait downstairs."
Her expression didn't change.
But her hand tightened on the doorframe.
Then from the hallway, Lily's small voice said, "Dad?
I have something to show you."
She was holding a phone.
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What was on Lily's phone — and did Claire know?
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What Ethan's father discovered next changed everything.
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