Chapter 2 - THE PROMISE HE MADE BEHIND MY BACK|
"Tell them, Daniel."
Dante Valenti's voice was quiet, but it carried through the entire ballroom.
My husband stood beside the table, his face drained of color.
Thirty-six guests watched him, waiting for an explanation.
Lily was still holding my hand.
Six weeks ago, I had given her one of my kidneys.
Tonight, I had discovered that my husband had convinced her I was abandoning her.
And somehow, the truth was still getting worse.
"Daniel," I whispered, "what did you promise our daughter?"
He rubbed his forehead.
"Claire, you're making this more complicated than it needs to be."
Dante took one slow step toward him.
"She asked you a question."
Daniel looked at him.
"With all due respect, Mr. Valenti, you don't understand our family."
"No," Dante replied, "but I'm beginning to understand you."
A nervous murmur traveled through the room.
Lily tightened her fingers around mine.
"Dad, please."
Daniel looked at his daughter.
Something shifted in his expression.
For one brief moment, I thought he might finally tell the truth.
Instead, he sighed.
"Before the transplant, Lily was frightened."
"Of course she was," I said.
"She was afraid the surgery wouldn't work."
My daughter lowered her eyes.
Daniel continued.
"She was also afraid of what Claire would expect afterward."
I stared at him.
"What?"
He swallowed.
"I told her that accepting your kidney would come with certain responsibilities."
My heart began pounding.
"What responsibilities?"
He didn't answer.
Lily answered for him.
"He said you wouldn't give me the kidney unless I promised to stop calling you Mom."
I felt the entire room tilt.
For eleven years, I had loved that girl.
I had carried her through fevers, heartbreaks, and nightmares.
And Daniel had told her that my love came with conditions.
"Sweetheart," I whispered, "I never said that."
"I know that now," Lily cried.
She looked at her father.
"But you told me she wanted a new life!"
Daniel reached for his champagne glass.
His hand shook so badly that he set it down again.
"I was trying to protect everyone."
"From what?" I asked.
"From an unhealthy emotional dependency."
Dante gave a short, humorless laugh.
"You're calling a daughter loving her mother unhealthy?"
Daniel's expression hardened.
"Claire isn't her biological mother."
Lily recoiled.
I felt her fingers go cold.
Dante looked toward the guests.
"Would someone please bring Mrs. Mercer another glass of water?"
A waiter hurried forward.
Dante pulled out a chair and sat across from Daniel.
"Let's understand this clearly."
My husband remained standing.
"Before your daughter's transplant, you told her that her stepmother would donate a kidney only if she agreed to disappear from her life afterward?"
Daniel looked away.
"That wasn't exactly how I phrased it."
"Was it true?"
"No."
The word came out barely above a whisper.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Lily began crying.
Not the frightened tears she'd shed earlier.
These were angry tears.
"You made me promise!"
Daniel turned toward her.
"Lily—"
"You made me promise I wouldn't call her after the surgery!"
Her voice broke.
"You said if I kept asking for her, she'd regret helping me!"
I covered my mouth.
I remembered the hospital.
The recovery room.
The terrible pain whenever I tried to sit upright.
Every morning, I'd asked Daniel whether Lily wanted to see me.
Every morning, he'd said she wasn't ready.
I had believed him.
Meanwhile, my daughter had been lying three floors above me, believing that seeing me would make me regret saving her life.
"Why?" I whispered.
Daniel looked at me with irritation.
"Because you never knew when to let go."
Eleven years of marriage.
And that was his answer.
Dante slowly stood.
"Daniel, I have one more question."
My husband looked relieved to have the attention directed elsewhere.
"Of course."
Dante gestured toward Elaine.
"Did your ex-wife know about this arrangement?"
Elaine's face went white.
She stared at the untouched dessert in front of her.
"Elaine?" Dante repeated.
She shook her head.
But Lily spoke before she could finish.
"She told me Claire had already agreed."
My eyes moved toward Elaine.
The woman wearing the expensive pearl earrings suddenly looked very small.
"Is that true?" I asked.
Elaine began crying.
"I didn't know what else to say."
"Then you knew," Dante said.
She didn't deny it.
Lily stepped away from both her parents.
"I thought Claire was leaving because she didn't love me anymore."
Her voice trembled.
"And you let me think that."
I tried to reach for her, but a sharp pain caught beneath my ribs.
I gasped.
Dante was beside me immediately.
"Claire?"
"I'm all right."
He looked at my hand pressed against my incision.
"No, you're hurting."
He quietly asked his assistant to arrange a medical evaluation and offered to have someone help me somewhere private.
For the first time that evening, Daniel seemed frightened.
But it wasn't concern for me that changed his expression.
It was the realization that Dante Valenti was no longer treating him like a friend.
Lily turned toward me.
"Mom, please don't leave without me."
My heart broke all over again.
"Sweetheart, I would never abandon you."
She pressed her forehead against mine.
"I want to go home with you."
Then Daniel said something that made every person in the room turn toward him.
"That's impossible."
I looked up.
"Why?"
He straightened his jacket.
"Because Claire doesn't have a home to take you to anymore."
Silence.
I stared at him.
"What are you talking about?"
Daniel reached into the inside pocket of his suit.
He removed a folded envelope.
And placed it in front of me.
"Your separation agreement became effective yesterday."
I shook my head.
"I haven't signed anything."
He looked directly into my eyes.
"According to the paperwork, Claire, you signed everything three weeks ago."
Dante slowly reached for the envelope.
And when he opened it, the expression on his face changed completely.
Because attached to the separation agreement was something I had never seen before.
May you like
A document claiming that I had transferred ownership of my house.
To Daniel.
