“She says they’re vitamins. But then I feel funny, I can’t sit still, and she starts recording me.”
Marcus dropped to one knee so he was eye-level with her. “Recording you for what?”
Lily pressed her lips together. “She says she has to show you how I act when you’re not around.”
A cold weight settled in Marcus’s chest.
His first wife, Hannah, had passed away four years earlier after a rapid illness. For a long time, Marcus had lived exclusively for Lily. Work, school drops, simple dinners, bedtime stories, and answering questions no little girl should ever have to ask so young.
When Sarah came into his life, she seemed to understand everything. She never asked to take down Hannah’s photos. She never complained when Lily talked about her mother. She even accompanied the little girl every year to leave flowers with her grandmother, Evelyn.
Marcus had mistaken that patience for kindness.
“Did Sarah say anything else to you?”
Lily looked toward the kitchen again. “That someday you’ll understand I need to live somewhere else.”
Marcus swallowed hard. “Where?”
“I don’t know. She says if I tell you about the juice, you’ll believe her videos and think I’m making things up.”
Marcus had to force himself not to march straight into the kitchen.
Then Lily added, “She talks to Julian, too.”
The name sounded completely unfamiliar to him. “Who’s Julian?”
“A man who comes over sometimes when you’re away. They talk about Mommy’s beach house.”
Marcus stopped breathing for a second….
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