Chapter 12 - Camille Finally Told Lila the Truth
It happened six weeks later.
Not planned.
Lila walked into the kitchen while Camille was making tea.
Mateo was nearby.
Rosa too.
Safe.
Ordinary.
Lila stood in the doorway.
Camille did not approach her.
“Hi.”
Lila hugged the notebook to her chest.
“Hi.”
Silence.
Then:
“Did you put the rattle in my coat?”
Camille set the spoon down.
“Yes.”
“The clip?”
“Yes.”
“The ribbon?”
“Yes.”
“My sock?”
“No.”
Lila frowned.
“I took the sock.”
Camille almost smiled.
“I know now.”
“Why did you do the others?”
The adults stayed quiet.
Camille could have given a complicated explanation about fear, grief, motherhood, comparison, loneliness, and denial.
Instead she answered at a four-year-old level.
“I was having feelings I didn’t know how to say, and I made them look like your fault.”
Lila considered that.
“Were they my fault?”
“No.”
“Was Noah’s fault?”
“No.”
“Daddy’s?”
Camille looked at Mateo.
“Some things between Daddy and me made it harder. But what I did was my choice.”
Mateo respected the precision.
Lila opened the notebook.
She removed the apology note.
“Can I draw on the back?”
Camille swallowed.
“Yes.”
Lila sat at the table.
Camille stayed across from her.
No hug.
No restoration.
May you like
But the distance shortened by one chair.
That was enough for one day.
