Chương 13
Lily wanted to take it back. She did not.
Dee said, “I’m not your mom.”
“No kidding.”
Ruth appeared at the end of the hall but did not intervene.
Dee’s voice sharpened. “You think I don’t know I failed you? I was eighteen. I thought being old enough to sign forms meant I knew how to keep someone alive.”
“I kept myself alive.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t need you.”
Dee swallowed.
“Then why are you so mad I wasn’t there?”
Lily hit the wall with the flat of her hand.
Ruth stepped forward.
Lily ran into the bathroom and locked the door.
She sat on the floor between the tub and toilet for forty minutes. No one knocked. That made her angrier at first. Then the anger became exhaustion.
When she came out, Dee had left.
On the sink lay the red scarf.
Lily wore it to bed.
Ethan began inpatient rehabilitation in February.
He could move both feet and lift his right knee slightly. His left leg lagged behind. The doctors avoided predictions. The physical therapists celebrated inches.
Daniel moved into a furnished apartment near the rehabilitation hospital instead of returning to the penthouse. He attended therapy twice a week and hated it with discipline.
His therapist, Dr. Samuel Greene, asked him why he believed attention counted only when it produced results.
Daniel answered with a long explanation about his father, work, and Claire’s illness.
Dr. Greene listened.
Then he said, “That was polished.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What is the unpolished answer?”
“I don’t know.”
“Good. We found the beginning.”
At home, Ethan practiced transferring from bed to wheelchair.
Daniel was not permitted to help unless asked.
The first time, Ethan slipped sideways and struck his shoulder against the rail. Daniel lunged forward.
The therapist blocked him.
“Let him recover.”
“He could fall.”
“He did fall.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
“It isn’t supposed to be.”
Ethan pushed himself upright, furious and embarrassed.
“Stop looking at me,” he said.
Daniel turned toward the wall.
“That’s worse.”
Daniel turned back.
“Everything you do is annoying.”
“I’m available for feedback.”
“Don’t talk like that.”
Daniel closed his mouth.
Ethan tried again.
After four attempts, he made the transfer.
Daniel’s hands were shaking.
Ethan noticed.
“You can say good job.”
“Good job.”
“That sounded weird.”
“I’m learning.”
They ate dinner from cardboard containers because the apartment kitchen had one pan and no salt. Daniel burned frozen peas anyway.
Ethan tasted one.
“They’re crunchy.”
“I followed the instructions.”
“You read the microwave instructions for a stove.”
Daniel looked at the bag.
“Apparently.”
Ethan laughed until his stomach hurt.
On Friday evenings, Lily called.
Sometimes she spoke to Ethan. Sometimes she asked Daniel questions about the foundation investigation. Sometimes she said nothing for long stretches while Milo shouted in the background.
Daniel learned not to fill silence.
The board removed him as chair of the Mercer Family Foundation but retained the independent review he had initiated. Mercer Vale named an interim chief executive. Daniel remained the largest shareholder and a board member, which meant he had not become powerless. He had only lost the comforting illusion that stepping aside was the same as sacrifice.
The company’s stock recovered half its decline within a month.
Public attention moved on.
That angered Lily.
“They cared for nine days,” she said during one call.
“Eleven,” Ethan corrected.
“Then there was a singer divorce.”
Daniel said, “Attention is not the same as change.”
“You sound like a commercial again.”
“I’m working on it.”
The investigation into Greenridge continued without headlines. Former staff gave contradictory statements. Two children described unauthorized nighttime transports. One said Ray had frightened them but never hurt them. Another accused a different staff member of using threats to force compliance.
The state suspended admissions at the nonprofit’s remaining programs.
That created a new problem.
Thirty-one children needed placements.
Several were sent to facilities farther from family. One sibling group was separated for twelve days before advocates intervened. A teenager disappeared from an emergency motel.
Lily read about it in a report Helen brought.
“You made it worse,” she told Daniel on the next call.
He did not defend himself.
“I helped trigger a process that made some things worse.”
“Same thing.”
“No. But close enough that I’m not going to argue.”
“What are you doing?”
“Funding emergency family placements through the outside administrator.”
“You said money doesn’t fix everything.”
“It still pays rent.”
She considered that.
“Are the kids asked where they want to go?”
“Not always.”
“Why?”
“Lack of available homes. Safety concerns. Court orders.”
“Those are adult reasons.”
“Yes.”
“Ask them anyway.”
Daniel wrote it down.
Lily heard the pen.
“Are you making a list?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t make me your project.”
“I’m making myself remember.”
She allowed that.
In March, prosecutors charged Raymond Cole with unlawful restraint, child endangerment, evidence tampering, and falsifying business records. The former Greenridge director was charged with falsifying regulatory reports and conspiracy related to unauthorized transfers.
The charges did not prove guilt.
Helen explained that repeatedly.
Ray’s attorney publicly accused Daniel Mercer of using wealth and influence to force an indictment in order to distract from neglecting his son.
The statement spread online.
Photographs of Lily reappeared.
Commentators argued over whether she was brave, manipulated, troubled, credible, ungrateful, or lucky. People who had never met her described what kind of child she was.
One afternoon, another student at Lily’s temporary school showed her a video claiming Lily had invented Greenridge to receive money from the Mercer family.
The girl asked, “Did you?”
Lily shoved her.
The girl fell against a locker and cut her lip.
Lily was suspended for three days.
At Ruth’s house, Elaine placed the disciplinary notice on the table.
“You could lose this placement if violence continues.”
“She called me a liar.”
“You cannot hit people for saying things.”
“She showed everybody.”
“Then you get a teacher.”
“The teacher said put the phone away.”
May you like
Elaine rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Ruth said, “The school failed to respond to harassment.”
