Chapter 7: The Threat
Victoria’s blood ran cold. Evelyn knew Lily’s speech impediment. She knew how easily she could be made to stumble, to panic, to look unreliable on the stand. She wasn’t just suing—she was trying to break her daughter.
Silas was furious when she told him. “That’s crossing every line there is. I’ll file a motion to keep her out—”
“She’ll fight it,” Victoria said. “She’ll say we’re hiding something.”
They spent the next week preparing—statements, medical records, witness lists. But nothing felt like enough.
Then one evening, a package arrived at their door. No return address. Inside: a single white rose, and a note scrawled in elegant, venomous handwriting: The truth is whatever I say it is. And everyone knows you’re just a girl who got lucky.
Lily found it first. She handed it to Victoria, quiet as a mouse. “Is she going to make me go away?”
Victoria knelt down, looked her straight in the eye. “No one is ever going to make you go away. Not her. Not anyone. You belong here more than she ever did.”
But late that night, as she watched Lily sleep, Victoria knew: this wasn’t just about a lawsuit anymore. It was about who got to define what “belonging” meant.
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