Chapter 6 - THE FAMILY CHOOSES SIDES
The story spread through the family before the social worker completed her first report.
Grant’s sister Colleen called Taylor irresponsible. Taylor’s younger brother Dean called Grant vindictive. Members of Evelyn’s church sent Taylor messages saying families should handle discipline privately.
Dean arrived at Grant’s apartment carrying groceries and defending his mother before anyone accused her.
“She’s strict,” he said. “She isn’t dangerous.”
“She locked a seven-year-old inside a freezer,” Grant replied.
“You don’t know whether the lid fell shut.”
“There were scratches beneath it.”
“Lily panics.”
Grant stood so abruptly that his chair scraped backward.
Dean raised his chin. “There it is. You’ve been waiting for an excuse to turn the divorce into a war.”
Grant’s hands curled.
Then he noticed Lily watching from the kitchen table.
He forced his fingers open.
Taylor arrived moments later for the scheduled family meeting. She stepped between the men but did not defend Grant.
“Dean, Mom cannot see Lily.”
“You’re cutting her off because Grant wants revenge.”
“No. I’m cutting her off because I should’ve done it months ago.”
The admission changed the room.
Colleen, who had joined by video call, demanded an explanation.
Taylor refused.
“This didn’t start in the garage.”
Lily continued coloring.
She drew the same dark rectangles with narrow yellow lines.
Dean looked at her picture and softened. “What are those, sweetheart?”
“Doors.”
“Why are they all open?”
“So people can hear you.”
Nobody spoke after that.
Dean left the groceries but took his coat without saying goodbye.
Colleen ended the call after telling Grant she supported him. Her support felt less comforting than it should have. She wanted Taylor to be entirely guilty, because that would make Grant entirely innocent.
Later, Taylor washed Lily’s blue mug at the sink.
“You think I’m hiding something,” she said.
“I know you are.”
Taylor placed the mug upside down on a towel.
“I tried to tell you before.”
“About the freezer?”
“About my mother.”
Grant waited.
Taylor shook her head. “Not tonight.”
“Why?”
May you like
“Because I need you to remember honestly before I explain it for you.”
She left him alone with Lily’s drawings and a marriage he was beginning to understand had ended long before the judge signed the papers.
