Page 110 of Lilly

I slide over and hug her. "I'm sorry it has to be this way. I really am."

There's a knock on the door. It opens and my dad is standing there.

I give him a nod, letting him know I told her.

"Lilly," my dad says, getting her attention. "May I speak with you?"

She jumps off the bed and runs over to him and hugs him. "Dad."

"I'll leave you guys alone," I say as I walk to the door.

Lilly knows. She finally knows. No more whispering behind her back. Watching what we say. That's good, I guess, but I still wish she never had to know.

From just that short conversation, her life is now changed, and it'll never be the same.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Pearce

"Honey, let's sit down," I say as I stand at the door with Lilly clinging to me.

This isn't what I expected. I thought I'd come in here and she'd be yelling at me, angry that I lied to her all these years. Angry about the things I've done, the people I've hurt. Angry because she blames me for the situation with Reed.

But she doesn't seem angry at all. She seems sad. Sad for me. I should've known she'd react this way. She has so much compassion for people. She's just like Rachel that way. In fact, sometimes Lilly is so similar to Rachel that if you didn't know it, you'd swear that Lilly came from Rachel, not Katherine. Lilly really didn't get any traits from Katherine, other than her blond hair and thin physique.

We go over to her bed and sit down.

"So Garret explained the organization to you?"

She nods. "He told me who they are and what they do and how you weren't given a choice." Tears spill down her cheeks. "All these years and I didn't know. I never knew why you were always so stressed and tired and never slept. I thought it was your job, but it was because of them, wasn't it? Because of what they made you do?"

"Lilly." I hold her hand. "That's all in the past. I don't do those things anymore."

"It doesn't matter. You still had to go through it. And then Mom and Grandpa."

"What about them?" I ask, hoping Garret didn't tell her about them. I don't want her knowing what they've done. Maybe when she's older but not now.

"Mom was always so mean to you. She acted like she hated you and you didn't even do anything wrong."

"Your mother and I both did things that were wrong. It wasn't just your mother."

"You're just saying that so I won't hate her. I was there, Dad. I saw how she treated you. I heard the things she said. And Grandfather was just like her. Even worse. I'd hear him talk to you and I'd hide in my room so I wouldn't have to hear it. He was so mean to you. And then you had to do whatever those bad people told you to do."

"Yes, but it's over now. I've moved on."

"And you had to run the company," she continues, as though she's saying it more to herself than to me. "And if that wasn't enough, you had to be both a dad and a mom, because my mom didn't want me."

I don't know how to respond to that. I could say it's not true but it would be a lie and she knows that. When I divorced Katherine, she lost all interest in Lilly, and it only got worse as she got older, until just recently when Katherine decided Lilly could benefit her.

"They took Rachel," she says.

Dammit. Garret wasn't supposed to tell her that.

She looks at me. "They did, didn't they? She wasn't kidnapped by some guys she didn't know. It was them. They took her, didn't they?"

So Garret didn't tell her. She's just guessing. What do I say? Do I lie to her? Let her continue believing the fake story?

"Dad, tell me the truth."

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