Chapter 6- THE ENVELOPE WITH LILY’S NAME
Fourteen months after Brian went to prison, a certified envelope appeared in my mailbox.
It was addressed to me, but Lily’s name was printed beneath mine.
I waited until she had gone upstairs before opening it.
Donna had filed a petition for court-ordered grandparent visitation.
According to the documents, she had been a loving, consistent presence in Lily’s life until I “abruptly severed their relationship out of anger toward the child’s father.” She claimed Lily was suffering emotionally because I had isolated her from Brian’s family.
There was no mention of the locked dining-room door.
No mention of Donna gripping my arm while Lily burned with a fever.
No mention of Brian striking me.
Instead, Donna had included photographs from birthdays, Christmas mornings and summer cookouts. In every picture, Lily was smiling.
A smiling child could make almost any family look safe for half a second.
At the bottom of Donna’s statement was a sentence that made my hands go cold.
“I believe Emily’s hostility has made her incapable of acting in Lily’s best interests.”
She was not simply asking to see my daughter.
She was beginning a legal argument that I was an unfit mother.
My phone rang before I could finish reading.
It was Evan.
“Donna called me,” he said. “She asked me to testify against you.”
I lowered myself into a kitchen chair.
“What did you say?”
“That she should never contact me again.”
Upstairs, Lily laughed at something playing on her tablet. The sound floated through the ceiling, light and ordinary.
I looked at the court date.
Donna had waited until our lives became peaceful.
May you like
Then she had found another door to push against.
This time, she was using a judge.
