“Enough!” Lily shouted.
She turned on me.
“You brought a stranger into our family and now everything is collapsing.”
Her words broke through the strength I had borrowed from everyone else.
“I didn’t bring him into this family,” I said.
“Your father did, before you were born.”
“Then why didn’t you know?”
“Because the person I trusted most decided my consent didn’t matter.”
Lily’s anger vanished.
Her mouth trembled.
“Am I even your daughter?”
I crossed the room and held her face between my hands.
“You are my daughter.
No test, no signature, and no lie can change who sat beside your bed when you were sick or who heard your first word.”
She began to cry.
“I don’t know who I am.”
“You’re Lily,” I said.
“And I’m sorry the truth reached you like this.”
She fell against me, and I held her while she sobbed.
