PART 11 – Daniel Kept Asking What I Had Done, While I Kept Waiting for Someone to Ask What Had Happened to Lily

There was something I hadn't expected about that night.

I had expected fear.

I had expected confusion.

I had even expected difficult questions from the police.

What I hadn't expected was the way my own family would look at me.

Daniel was Lily's father.

Patricia was her grandmother.

I thought we would all be frightened together.

Instead, I felt increasingly isolated.

Daniel kept returning to the same accusation.

He wanted to know how I could have failed to notice what happened.

I tried to explain that I hadn't seen anything.

I told him again that I didn't know where the magnets had come from.

He didn't seem satisfied.

I eventually stopped trying to convince him.

I couldn't force somebody to believe me.

I could only tell the truth.

Patricia's earlier comments about my online activities stayed with me.

She had connected my social media use and online classes to Lily's injury.

I couldn't understand how she had made that connection.

There was no evidence that those activities had caused anything.

They were simply convenient things to mention while everyone was looking for someone to blame.

I remembered her expression when she spoke.

The tears.

The hands pressed against her chest.

The words about her innocent granddaughter.

I wanted to believe her concern was genuine.

But I also wanted her to stop talking about me.

My daughter had just undergone surgery.

That should have been enough to silence every unnecessary accusation.

I looked at Daniel.

"Have you asked the doctors how Lily is doing?"

He didn't immediately answer.

I waited.

Then I turned back toward the medical area.

I didn't want to keep having the same conversation.

There was nothing useful in repeating accusations.

I needed information.

I needed to see my child.

And I needed the officers to examine the security footage.

The dining room camera had become the one concrete thing I could point to.

It wasn't my memory against Daniel's memory.

It wasn't Patricia's opinion against mine.

It was a recording.

I didn't know what it contained.

I didn't want to guess.

I wanted the officers to establish that for themselves.

The more I thought about it, the more important it became that nobody interfere with the investigation.

I had already explained where the camera was.

I had already told them to check the recording.

Now I needed to let them do their work.

I sat quietly.

My hands rested in my lap.

I kept looking toward the doors.

I had never felt so tired.

But I wasn't going to leave.

Lily needed her mother.

And the truth about what happened to her needed to be found.

Click here to continue reading: PART 12: I Stopped Trying to Defend Myself With Words and Put My Trust in the One Piece of Evidence Nobody Could Explain Away