September 30, Wednesday
I SMILED into the camera. "How was your birthday dinner?" I asked Lily, trying to keep my voice light, hopeful the day might have softened something in her.
"Fine," Lily said, examining her nails instead of the camera. "Heidi replaced the sandals I ruined when I stepped in Tucker's poo. Got me a bag to match, too. Designer. The real kind, not an outlet mall knock-off."
"That's nice of her," I murmured.
"Elaine gave me a necklace. Said it was from you." Lily's eyes flicked up, sharp. "I know she bought it herself. The card wasn't even your handwriting."
I let that sit rather than defend it. Some fights weren't worth having.
Josh, beside her, shifted and elbowed Lily's arm. "Tell her."
"Shut up, Josh."
"Tell me what?" I asked, my stomach already tightening.
Lily smiled. "It's nothing."
"Lily." Josh's voice had an edge of nervousness. "She posted something. On Instagram."
"Josh!" Lily punched his arm.
"What did you post?" I kept my voice even, though something cold had already started spreading through my chest.
Lily lifted her chin, defiant now that the secret was out.
"I posted that people needed to stop asking if you're in rehab.
That, FYI, you're not in rehab, you're serving on jury duty.
On a big important trial." She said the last part with a bitter little flourish, like she was quoting a headline.
"So everyone can stop being weird about it. "
I felt the blood leave my face. Somewhere at the edge of my vision, Deputy Wells had gone very still, then started moving—two unhurried steps that brought him within easy earshot of the laptop, his posture shifted from background presence into something sharper, more alert.
"Lily, you know that's against the rules. I'm not allowed to discuss the case, and neither are you. Nobody in the family is supposed to say anything about it publicly. The judge was very clear."
She shrugged, a small, deliberate movement, and something in the set of her mouth told me this wasn't carelessness. "So? What are they gonna do—kick you off the jury?"
The question hung there, and beneath it, unmistakably, a smile started at the corner of her mouth and grew.
She wanted this. She'd done it on purpose, knowing exactly what it would cost, knowing it might be the one lever with enough weight behind it to actually pull me home.
"Lily." My voice came out quieter than I intended, disbelief bleeding through. "Did you do that on purpose?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, but the smile flickered again, betraying her.
"We need to end this call," I said, my mind already racing three steps ahead—Judge Arnold, a formal inquiry, the marshal service, a pause to the high-profile trial caused by an angry sixteen-year-old with a grudge and a phone.
"Fine," Lily said, unbothered, already reaching to end the call herself, robbing me of even that small authority. "See you soon!" she added gleefully.
The screen went dark before Josh could say anything at all.
I sat frozen in the chair, the weight of what had just happened settling over me in slow, sickening layers. Deputy Wells was already speaking quietly into his radio, his eyes on me, not unkind but entirely professional now, already moving into whatever protocol this triggered.
I thought of Lily's satisfied smile, and understood, with a certainty that turned my stomach, that she'd gotten exactly what she wanted—and that I would very likely be going home.
*****
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