Chapter 12
The breaking point arrived entirely without warning three days later. I had faked a mandatory overnight business trip to Chicago, packing my suitcase and kissing Victoria goodbye at the front door. I drove my car to a hotel three miles away, checked in, and waited until the sun completely set. The anxiety gnawing at my stomach was unbearable. I needed to see how Victoria treated Lily when she firmly believed I was a thousand miles away. At nine o'clock, I took an Uber back to my own neighborhood, walking the final block in the dark. I slipped through the back garden gate and used my key to quietly unlock the service entrance. The house was unnervingly dark and entirely silent. I crept through the kitchen and down the long hallway that led to the basement stairs. The basement was supposed to be a storage area, cold and unfinished, a place Lily absolutely hated. As I approached the door, I heard a sound that completely shattered my heart into a million irreparable pieces. It was a soft, rhythmic sobbing, muffled and desperate.
I threw open the basement door and flipped the light switch. The harsh fluorescent bulbs flickered to life, illuminating the concrete floor. There, huddled in the far corner behind a stack of moving boxes, was my beautiful daughter. She was curled into a tight ball, shivering violently in the damp cold, wearing nothing but a thin t-shirt and pajama pants.
"Lily!" I shouted, sprinting down the wooden stairs taking two at a time.
She flinched violently at the sound of my voice, throwing her hands over her head in a protective, defensive gesture that made my stomach heave with absolute nausea. She thought I was Victoria returning to punish her.
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"No, no, please, I'm sorry, I won't come upstairs again, I promise," she sobbed hysterically, her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
I dropped to my knees on the freezing concrete, wrapping my arms around her trembling body. "Lily, sweetheart, it's me. It's Dad. I'm right here."
