Chapter 27 - THE QUESTION MARK
Lily found the birthday card.
Ryan should have hidden it better.
He didn't believe in hiding things anymore.
Apparently that required better organization.
She held it up.
Purple letters.
DADDY?
Ryan stopped.
“Where'd you get that?”
“Your drawer.”
“My closed drawer?”
Lily considered.
“Yes.”
Ethan yelled from the living room:
“She was looking for tape!”
Lily shouted back:
“I FOUND TAPE!”
Ryan rubbed his forehead.
“Come here.”
She climbed onto the kitchen chair.
Opened the card.
“You wrote this?”
“No.”
“Mama?”
“The words inside.”
Lily looked at the front.
“I did that?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“You were three.”
She stared at the question mark.
“Why didn't Mama give it to you?”
Ryan thought about the adult answer.
Fear.
Shame.
Marriage.
Adam.
Grant.
The fake message.
Five years of institutionalized avoidance.
He chose the child answer.
“She wasn't ready.”
Lily frowned.
“To give a card?”
“To change everything.”
Lily thought about that.
Then:
“Was I everything?”
Ryan's throat tightened.
“No.”
She waited.
“You were one person.”
Lily looked unconvinced.
Ryan continued.
“A very important person.”
Better.
She touched the question mark.
“Do I still need this?”
“What?”
“The question mark.”
Ryan looked at her.
“No.”
Lily ran for Ethan's pencil case.
Came back with a purple marker.
Same color by accident.
She drew a thick line over the question mark.
Now the card read:
DADDY
She smiled.
Ryan didn't.
Not immediately.
It hit too hard.
Lily looked worried.
“You don't like it?”
Ryan shook his head.
“I love it.”
“Then smile.”
He did.
Badly.
She accepted it.
Then she turned the card over and wrote something else.
Ryan watched.
FOR DAD.
FROM LILY.
She handed it to him.
“There.”
Ryan took it.
No DNA.
No court.
No adults negotiating definitions.
Just a card.
He put it on the refrigerator.
Claire entered carrying groceries.
Stopped when she saw it.
Her eyes moved from the card to Ryan.
She didn't say anything.
Correct choice.
Ethan entered.
Read it.
“That question mark was cooler.”
Lily shoved him.
He laughed.
Ryan looked at both children.
This house was getting louder.
Messier.
May you like
Less controlled.
He was beginning to like it.
