Page 65 of For Lila, Forever

Cupping my hands around my eyes, I peer inside (like a creep, I know) and find myself looking at a house that’s been completely emptied out. Nothing but carpet and walls.

I was just here less than a week ago.

How can they be gone?!

I take a seat on the front steps, resting my elbows on my knees and staring off.

I came all this way to make things right … and she bolted? Maybe she was afraid I was going to try to take MJ? Maybe she’s worried I’m too much like my grandfather and she wants nothing to do with me? I wouldn’t blame her for being traumatized at having to live in secret the last ten years, but my God, this is my child we’re talking about here.

Pushing myself up, I trudge back to my rental. Westley calls just as I’m backing out of Lila’s driveway, so I stick it in park and wait, hoping maybe he’s calling because he knows something.

“Hey,” he says after I answer. He doesn’t ask me how I’m doing. He knows better. “You at work?”

“Nope. In Oregon. Looking for Lila. She left. Again.”

He says nothing at first, and then he sighs. He knows how fucked this whole thing is and he knows better than to offer some pithy words of comfort. “So, they wanted me to call you and let you know that the reading of the will is this Saturday at the Hageman Law in Bridgeport. Eight o’clock. They want everyone there.”

“I’ll be there Thursday for the service, but I can’t promise I’ll stick around after that.”

“Really?”

“Granddad told me Saturday night he was writing me out of the will,” I say.

“What? What’d you do? Tell me you didn’t …”

“Of course I did.”

“Seriously?” His tone is cutting. “I bet he wrote us both out because I wasn’t supposed to tell you. And you knew that. Thanks a lot, asshole.”

“Do you really want to go there with me? Right now? As I look for the mother of the child that you hid from me for almost ten fucking years so you could keep your inheritance?”

Westley begins to say something, but I end the call.

I don’t have time for his shit.

I shift into reverse and begin to back out, only I slam on the brakes when I catch a glimpse of Lila in my rearview. She’s coming from across the street, run-walking toward my SUV. Rolling down my window, I begin to ask where she was, but she cuts me off.

“Can we go somewhere and talk?” she asks.

Chapter 54

Lila

We’re seated in a corner booth in a sparsely filled café on the north side of Summerton. Thayer’s hands are folded on the table in front of him, and I can’t stop shredding the paper napkin in my hands into hundreds of tiny pieces.

We order two coffees.

We’ve got a lot to talk about.

When I saw Thayer at my old house a little while ago, I asked Ms. Beauchamp if she wouldn’t mind watching MJ for a little bit so I could catch up with an old friend, and she happily obliged. In my frenzied state, I stepped into a pair of flip-flops, grabbed my purse and phone, and ran out the door just in time to catch him backing out.

“So what brings you back?” I ask.

“I came back because I wanted to apologize,” he says. “Last week, when I talked to Westley … he didn’t give me the full story. And I assumed …”

“You assumed what?”

“I assumed you and Westley slept together after I left for college and that he got you pregnant and that’s why you left,” he says. “When I saw the picture of your daughter on my way out of your house, I guessed her age to be about eight or nine, and I started piecing everything together. And when I called Westley to ask him if he had anything to do with this, he just kept saying it was complicated and he needed to talk to me in person. And in my mind, I figured that if he didn’t do it and he’s innocent, all he had to say was ‘no,’ but he was so vague and kept circumventing my questions so the only logical explanation was that the two of you …”

I reach across the table and place my hand over his. “Oh my god. No. I’m so sorry you thought that.”

“The next day, I saw MJ at the coffee shop on my way out of town,” he says. “She was wearing that opal ring I gave you, the one from the antique shop? She had that on a chain like a necklace. I asked her about it and she said her dad gave it to her mom before she was born.”

Thayer takes my hand in both of his.

“I had a flight to catch and Whitley’s wedding to go to, so I left,” he says. “But as soon as I got to the island, I found Westley and demanded the truth.” Thayer’s blue eyes are intense as they hold mine. “And he told me everything, Lila.”

---