Chapter 2 - The Lie Claire Had Practiced for Eight Months
Walter did not ask Derek for an explanation.
He crossed the bedroom and knelt beside Claire.
“Can you stand?”
She nodded automatically.
Walter recognized the lie.
She had been saying “I’m fine” since childhood whenever she was frightened.
He held out both hands.
Claire tried to rise.
Her legs failed halfway.
Walter caught her.
That was when he started crying.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
He simply looked down at the daughter who used to outrun him on hiking trails and whispered, “Jesus, sweetheart.”
Claire buried her face against his jacket.
Derek finally spoke.
“She didn’t want you involved.”
Walter looked over Claire’s shoulder.
“Don’t.”
One word.
Derek stopped.
Walter helped Claire onto the bed.
“When did you find out?”
Claire wiped her face.
“January.”
It was September.
Walter stared at her.
“January?”
She nodded.
“At first they thought surgery might get most of it. Then they found lesions in my liver.”
Walter sat beside her.
“You went through all of this without telling me?”
“I had Derek.”
The sentence sounded wrong the moment she said it.
Walter looked toward him.
Derek folded his arms.
Claire immediately corrected herself.
“I mean…I wasn’t alone.”
Walter had arrived that afternoon because Claire had stopped returning his calls.
For months she had texted excuses.
Too tired.
Busy with appointments.
Work deadlines.
A stomach bug.
Derek had sometimes answered her phone and said Claire was asleep.
Walter believed him.
Once, in April, Walter offered to drive down from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis.
Claire told him not to.
Derek had been standing beside her when she made that call.
Walter remembered now.
He also remembered something stranger.
Derek had called him afterward.
“Give her some space,” he had said. “She gets overwhelmed when everybody treats her like she’s fragile.”
At the time, it sounded protective.
Now Walter looked at his daughter’s bruised wrist.
“Claire.”
She knew the question before he asked.
“Did he hurt you before today?”
Derek stepped forward.
“She’s exhausted and medicated. Be careful what you’re putting in her head.”
Walter rose.
His entire posture changed.
“Get out of this room.”
“It’s my house.”
Walter looked at him.
“Then I’ll take my daughter somewhere that isn’t.”
Claire flinched.
Derek noticed.
So did Walter.
May you like
That tiny reaction told him the problem was not merely that Claire had hidden cancer.
She was afraid of what happened if she tried to leave.
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