Chapter 9 - THE FATHER WHO CAME HOME EARLYLily was eighteen when she asked Ethan:
“What would've happened if you got home at seven?”
He had wondered for twelve years.
“I don't know.”
“Would I have told you?”
“Maybe.”
“I don't think so.”
Ethan looked down.
“Why?”
“Because she told me you wouldn't believe me.”
He swallowed.
“Did you?”
“At six?”
“Yes.”
Lily thought.
“I thought you'd tell her I was lying.”
The sentence still hurt.
Ethan nodded.
“I gave her reasons to make that believable.”
Lily looked at him.
“But you believed me when you saw.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't ask her first.”
“No.”
“You asked me.”
“Yes.”
That mattered to Lily.
Then she smiled.
“Also you wrapped me in your suit.”
Ethan laughed.
“I ruined a very expensive jacket.”
“It smelled bad.”
“Thank you.”
She laughed.
Memory had changed shape.
The bag wasn't the center anymore.
The jacket was.
May you like
Protection.
A child remembered what adults often underestimated.
