Chapter 7 - Grandma's Secret Messages To Lily
Victoria asked everyone except Andrew, Caroline, Elena, Marcus, and Lily to leave the library.
Then she sat on the carpet.
Not in a chair.
Not across a table.
On Lily’s level.
“Tell me about Grandma.”
Lily twisted the ribbon on her dress.
“Aunt Carrie says Grandma can’t come home, but she can send messages.”
“How?”
“Sometimes notes.”
“What kind of notes?”
“Little ones.”
“And sometimes?”
Lily looked toward Caroline.
Caroline whispered, “Don’t.”
Victoria’s head snapped up.
“Don’t what?”
Caroline’s eyes were wet.
“Don’t make her repeat this.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s confusing her.”
Victoria almost couldn’t believe the words.
“You created the confusion.”
Caroline shook her head desperately.
“I was trying to comfort her.”
Lily spoke again.
“Sometimes Grandma talks.”
Victoria’s stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Aunt Carrie’s phone.”
Andrew closed his eyes.
Victoria remembered Caroline showing Lily old family videos.
She had thought it sweet.
Now she wondered what else Lily had heard.
“What did Grandma say?”
Lily looked at Victoria.
“That Daddy makes you cry.”
Victoria felt tears burn her eyes.
Andrew stared at Caroline.
“You used Evelyn’s voice?”
Caroline said nothing.
Elena looked horrified.
“Caroline, did you use synthetic audio?”
“I didn’t make anything.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Victoria stood slowly.
“You let my daughter believe her dead grandmother was sending messages?”
“I never meant for it to become this.”
“What did you mean?”
Caroline’s face crumpled.
“I wanted Lily to trust me.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody had to protect her.”
“From whom?”
Caroline looked at Andrew.
He stared back.
“Say it,” he said.
“From you.”
Andrew’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Based on what?”
Caroline laughed through tears.
“You really want to do this?”
“Yes.”
“You want Victoria to know everything?”
Andrew’s confidence flickered.
Victoria saw it.
“What everything?”
Caroline looked at her sister.
“Ask him about the custody petition.”
Silence.
Victoria turned toward Andrew.
“What custody petition?”
Andrew’s face tightened.
“It wasn’t filed.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He glanced at Lily.
Victoria asked the nanny to take Lily into the adjoining sitting room.
This time, Lily went willingly after Victoria promised she would remain nearby.
When the door closed, Victoria faced her husband.
“Talk.”
Andrew rubbed both hands over his face.
“Two months after your mother died, you told me you wanted to disappear.”
Victoria remembered.
It had been three in the morning.
She had been crying in their bathroom.
She had said she wanted to get in the car and keep driving until nobody knew her name.
It had been grief speaking.
She had never intended to leave Lily.
Andrew continued.
“I got scared.”
“So you tried to take my daughter?”
“No.”
“Then what petition?”
“I spoke to a family attorney.”
Victoria felt betrayed anyway.
“About custody.”
“About what would happen if you left.”
Caroline crossed her arms.
“He asked how to keep Lily.”
Andrew turned on her.
“I asked how to protect Lily if Victoria vanished during a mental-health crisis.”
Victoria flinched.
Andrew immediately softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. Finish.”
“The attorney drafted an emergency petition as a contingency. I never signed it. I never filed it.”
Victoria’s throat hurt.
“You hid this from me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because by the next morning, you told me you needed help. You started grief counseling. You got stronger.”
He looked ashamed.
“And I was embarrassed that fear had made me prepare for the worst instead of talking to you.”
Victoria understood the fear.
That didn’t erase the secrecy.
Caroline stepped closer.
“I found the draft in his study.”
Andrew looked at her.
“How?”
She ignored him.
“I knew what he was planning.”
“You knew what I had considered months earlier.”
“You were going to take Lily.”
“I never filed it.”
Victoria raised her voice.
“Stop!”
Both fell silent.
The pieces were becoming clearer, but they didn’t form one picture yet.
Caroline had found a real document.
Then she had apparently built a nightmare around it.
But why?
Why frighten Lily?
Why manipulate Victoria?
Why attack Elena?
And why tonight?
Marcus’s radio crackled again.
He listened.
Then his expression changed.
“Police are five minutes out.”
Andrew nodded.
“Good.”
Marcus didn’t move.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“We checked the study.”
He looked at Caroline.
“The emergency custody draft is gone.”
Caroline stared back.
“I don’t have it.”
Marcus continued.
“So is a second document.”
Victoria’s instincts tightened.
“What document?”
Marcus looked at Andrew.
Andrew suddenly seemed alarmed.
“A sealed letter from Evelyn.”
Victoria’s blood went cold.
“My mother wrote Andrew a letter?”
May you like
Andrew nodded.
Victoria whispered, “And you never told me?”
