Chapter 20 - lily asked why grandma hated her mother before she hated lily
The question came when Lily was seven.
She found an old photograph.
Elena standing in the kitchen.
Brown hair pulled into a messy bun.
Flour across her cheek.
Lily held the picture beside her own face.
“I look like Mom.”
Dominic smiled.
“A lot.”
“Grandma hated that.”
His smile disappeared.
Children did not forget sentences simply because adults wished they would.
“Grandma said you looked like your mom.”
“And cried like her.”
“Yes.”
“Why was that bad?”
“It wasn’t.”
Lily stared.
“Then why did Grandma think it was?”
Dominic sat beside her.
For two years he had used the child-safe version.
Grandma had harmful ideas about strength.
Grandma made dangerous choices.
Enough for five.
Not enough for seven.
“I think my mother believed being gentle meant being weak.”
Lily frowned.
“Mom was weak?”
“No.”
Dominic smiled sadly.
“Your mother was one of the strongest people I knew.”
“How?”
He began telling stories.
Elena sitting beside Owen for four hours during a hospital visit because he refused to let a nurse touch him without her.
Elena going back to work after maternity leave while crying in the car and still doing the thing she believed was right for their family.
Elena confronting a contractor twice her size because he spoke disrespectfully to one of his employees.
Lily smiled.
“Mom yelled?”
“Your mother could absolutely yell.”
This seemed to improve Elena dramatically in Lily’s estimation.
Then Lily asked:
“Did Grandma like her?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
True.
There had been holidays.
Birthdays.
Good moments.
Diane had held Elena’s hand during Lily’s delivery.
Life was more complicated than villain origin stories.
“But they had problems.”
“Why?”
“Your mom did not like being told how to raise you and Owen.”
Lily nodded approvingly.
“And Grandma liked telling people.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked at the photograph.
“I used to think they just had different personalities.”
“That was easier for me than noticing when my mother treated Elena badly.”
Lily studied him.
“You didn’t protect Mom?”
There it was.
Dominic felt shame.
“Not enough.”
“Why?”
“Because Diane was my mother.”
Lily looked confused.
“That’s not a reason.”
He smiled sadly.
“No.”
“It isn’t.”
She thought for a long time.
Then:
“Did Mom get mad at you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Dominic laughed.
He deserved that.
Lily placed the photograph back.
“Did Mom know Grandma hated me?”
“No.”
That answer came quickly.
Elena died when Lily was two.
Diane’s campaign against Lily developed after she moved into the house permanently.
“I’m glad.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Why?”
Lily’s eyes filled.
“She’d be sad.”
He pulled her close after she leaned toward him.
“She would be sad that you were hurt.”
“Yes.”
“But I think she would also see who you are now.”
Lily became still.
Dominic caught himself.
He had almost stepped into dangerous territory.
Speaking for Elena.
He corrected.
“I know what your mom loved about you when she was alive.”
“What?”
“The way you laughed when Owen sneezed.”
“That’s weird.”
“You were two.”
“What else?”
“You climbed into her lap every morning even when she needed both hands for coffee.”
Lily smiled.
“And she loved your eyes.”
“My eyes?”
“Because she said they looked like hers.”
Lily’s face broke.
Dominic realized what he had just returned to her.
Diane had taken resemblance and turned it into accusation.
Elena had seen the same resemblance and called it belonging.
Lily cried.
Then laughed at herself for crying.
Dominic touched her cheek.
“You can look like your mother.”
“You can cry like your mother.”
“You can be soft.”
“You can be angry.”
“You can be difficult.”
Lily’s eyebrows rose.
“Difficult?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t become removable because someone finds you difficult.”
That sentence stayed.
Years later Lily would remember it almost word for word.
Because children do not only remember what frightened them.
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If adults are careful, they also remember what put them back together.
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