What Lily Wrote
Chapter 07 - What Lily Wrote
Thomas did not touch the notebook.
He followed Marisol and Ethan to the parking garage instead.
“Ethan.”
The boy kept walking.
“There may be something in your mother's bag you need to read.”
Ethan stopped.
Thomas told him about Margaret's call.
Marisol's expression hardened.
“Your mother threatened my sister, and she's still trying to control this?”
Thomas did not defend Margaret.
Ethan opened the duffel on the hood of Marisol's car.
The blue notebook was buried under two shirts.
He recognized it immediately.
“My mom never let me read this.”
They returned to Marisol's house before opening it.
The first pages were ordinary.
Bills.
Grocery lists.
Notes about Ethan's school.
Then the entries changed.
Lily had written about Thomas.
About Margaret.
About the morning Margaret arrived at Lily's apartment with an envelope containing ten thousand dollars.
But Lily had not taken the money.
She had thrown it back.
Margaret had made a different threat.
Thomas's father had influence over the local hospital where Marisol's father was receiving treatment after his stroke.
Lily believed Margaret could ruin her family's access to care.
So Lily left.
Marisol closed the notebook.
“She sacrificed everything for Dad?”
Ethan shook his head.
“There is more.”
The next entry was dated two months later.
Lily had tried to contact Thomas after leaving.
She called his house.
Margaret answered.
She told Lily that Thomas had become engaged.
It was another lie.
Thomas covered his face.
“I wasn't engaged.”
Lily, believing Thomas had moved on, decided to raise Ethan alone.
Then Ethan turned another page.
A photograph fell out.
Thomas picked it up.
It showed Lily holding a newborn baby.
On the back she had written:
Ethan Thomas Cole. Named for the man I hope he never learns to hate.
Thomas began to cry.
But Ethan was staring at the next page.
His expression had changed.
There was another name written beneath his.
A name none of them recognized.
May you like
And beside it were the words:
He knows the whole truth.
