Chương 3
They separated everyone.
Daniel went to the study.
Victoria went to the dining room.
Elena remained near Lily until the paramedics prepared to take the girl to the hospital.
“Can I go with her?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
Victoria appeared from the hall.
“I’m coming too.”
Daniel looked at Mercer.
The officer gave no instruction.
It was Daniel who said, “No.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You don’t get to make that decision.”
“I just did.”
“She is my family.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
It was not cruelty.
That almost made it worse.
“Not tonight.”
The paramedics wheeled Lily toward the front door.
Victoria followed.
Mercer stepped gently into her path.
“Mrs. Crane, we still need to talk.”
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“You’re leaving me here with the police?”
He adjusted the blanket over Lily’s legs.
Then he left.
At the hospital, Lily’s breathing improved quickly.
That should have been the good part.
Daniel sat beside her bed in a private emergency room bay and discovered that relief did not feel the way he had imagined it would.
It felt ugly.
It came mixed with rage, guilt, humiliation, and a nausea that had nothing to do with the vending-machine coffee Elena handed him.
“You have to drink something.”
“I’m not thirsty.”
“It isn’t for thirst.”
He took it.
She sat across from him.
Lily had fallen asleep after the respiratory therapist left. Her braids had come loose. One was nearly gone.
Daniel stared at her.
“How long?”
Elena did not answer.
He looked up.
“How long has Victoria been doing things like this?”
Elena folded the paper sleeve around her coffee cup.
“Not like this.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
“Elena.”
She watched Lily.
Daniel followed her gaze.
“Please.”
Elena sighed.
“There have been problems.”
“What problems?”
“Small ones.”
“Small according to who?”
“That is the difficult part.”
He leaned back.
The plastic chair gave a small squeak.
Elena hated that sound instantly. She would hear it in her sleep for months.
“Victoria is very particular,” she said.
Daniel laughed once without humor.
“That’s a polite word.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t be polite.”
Elena looked at him.
“I work for you.”
“Then consider this work.”
“No.”
“What?”
“This is not work.”
He stared at her.
Elena set the coffee down.
“If you want me to tell you the truth, then for five minutes I cannot be your employee.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“Fine.”
“She has punished Lily for wheezing.”
His hands stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“She says Lily uses it for attention.”
“Victoria told me she thought Lily panicked too easily.”
“It is more than that.”
“How much more?”
Elena hesitated.
There it was.
The first thing she would regret.
Not what she had done.
What she had failed to do.
“There was a school morning two months ago. Lily said her chest felt tight. Victoria told her she could stay home if the pulse oximeter showed something was wrong.”
Daniel looked confused.
“What pulse oximeter?”
“Victoria bought one.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“She kept it in the kitchen drawer.”
“What happened?”
“Lily’s number was normal.”
“So?”
“Victoria made her run up and down the stairs.”
Daniel stared.
Elena could barely hear herself now.
“She said if Lily could run, she could go to school.”
“How many times?”
“Three.”
Daniel stood.
The chair hit the wall.
Lily stirred.
He froze.
Both adults looked at her.
She settled again.
Daniel sat down slowly.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena had expected that question for months.
Still, it hurt.
“I told you there were problems.”
“No. You told me Victoria and Lily were ‘still adjusting.’”
“Yes.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me she made my asthmatic daughter run stairs to prove she could breathe?”
“Because after the first flight Lily was laughing.”
Daniel’s expression twisted.
Elena continued before he could speak.
“That is not an excuse. It is what happened. Lily thought it became a race. She was not in distress. I stopped it anyway. Victoria told me I was undermining her. Later Lily begged me not to tell you because she said you and Victoria had fought the night before.”
Daniel looked away.
Elena’s voice softened.
“She did not want another fight.”
He stood again, more slowly.
The emergency department beyond the curtain continued as if nothing had happened. A cart rattled past. Somewhere a man coughed. Somebody’s phone played three notes of a ringtone and stopped.
Daniel walked to the end of Lily’s bed.
“I thought they were getting along.”
“Sometimes they were.”
“That somehow makes it worse.”
“Yes.”
He looked at Elena.
“What else?”
She told him about the food.
Not starvation. Nothing so obvious.
Victoria had a rule about unfinished meals. Lily could not have dessert if she failed to clean her plate. Daniel knew that.
He did not know Victoria sometimes put the same plate in front of Lily at breakfast if she refused dinner.
“She did that twice,” Elena said. “I threw it away the second time.”
“Why didn’t you—”
He stopped.
The question had become useless.
Elena understood anyway.
“I should have.”
Daniel leaned against the wall.
“What else?”
“She took Lily’s bedroom door off for three days.”
His head came up.
“When?”
“When you were in Dallas.”
“She told me the hinge cracked.”
“The hinge did crack.”
“Because she removed it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Lily locked the door.”
“Why?”
Elena said nothing.
Daniel’s face changed.
“Why did Lily lock the door?”
“She and Victoria had been arguing.”
“About what?”
“Lily’s mother.”
The room seemed smaller.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“What about Rachel?”
“Victoria packed some of Rachel’s things from Lily’s closet.”
Daniel stared at her.
“She said Lily was too old to sleep with one of the old sweaters.”
Daniel sat down.
For a while he looked only at the floor.
Rachel had been dead five years.
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A highway accident outside Santa Barbara. A delivery truck, a wet curve, a call at 6:14 in the morning.
Lily had been two.
