Page 60 of Liberating Lily

“Oh, but I’m feeling fine, and she is allowed visitors now, isn’t she?”

After the operation to remove the tumor in her arm, Clem had to go to a rehabilitation clinic. Lily knew her mother had wanted her to come home with a private nurse, but Clem had refused.

She was far stronger than Lily, who would have given in to her mother’s demands.

“You’re not going there, Lily. You won’t want to.”

But she did want to. She wanted to show some support for her sister. She hated that Clem was going through this. She hadn’t even realized that she had cancer for a start. No one had thought to tell Lily.

Clem had already gone through so much on her own. This felt like the least Lily could do, even if she wasn’t certain that Clem would want her to visit.

“You’re not going to see Clem because Rick is picking you up in an hour.”

“What? Why would Rick pick me up?” she asked in confusion.

Her mother sighed as if she was testing her patience by asking questions.

“Because you’re now dating him, Lily, obviously. He’ll be proposing soon, and you’ll accept. This is actually far better than him marrying Clem. She really wasn’t suited for a man who’s on his way to the White House.”

It was like she understood the words, but she couldn’t put them all together to make them make sense, because there was no way she was going on a date with Rick. She wasn’t going to say yes to any proposal. She definitely didn’t want to be with that slimeball. Who should not be anywhere near the White House.

“I’m not dating Rick, Mother. He’s going out with Clem.”

“No, he’s broken up with her.”

“He broke up with her? When?”

“I believe it was this morning.”

“This morning? While she’s rehabilitating from having an operation to remove a cancerous tumor?”

Was her mother serious?

What kind of an asshole did that?

“Yes, Lily. Why is it taking you so long to understand this? Rick has broken up with Clem. He needs someone stronger, more suitable. That is you. You are going on a date with him. When he proposes soon, you will accept. You will marry him, and you are going to become the First Lady of the United States.”

Wow, she hadn’t realized that her mother took drugs, and that she was now as high as a kite, because those delusions were something else.

Even if Rick wasn’t Clem’s ex-boyfriend, she still wouldn’t want to date him. Or become the freaking First Lady of the United States.

Her mother’s face was lit with avarice. “Your father was supposed to make a run for President. But then he got ill. It was so disappointing.”

Wow. Lily had known her parents hadn’t had a love match, but to hear her mother state her father’s illness and death as a disappointment because he had he couldn’t make a run for President . . . it just showed how much of a heartless bitch her mother could be.

“I’m not dating Rick, Mother. What would people think? What would Clem think?”

Lily wished she didn’t care about other people’s opinions, but she had this horrid need to please others. She also didn’t want to hurt Clem. Or have her sister hate her.

“It doesn’t matter what Clem thinks. This is happening.”

“Seriously? Just after he’s broken things off with her? She’s not going to believe that I want to date Rick.”

At least she hoped her sister wouldn’t believe that.

Desperation and worry made her heart beat faster and her stomach churn.

“Really, I don’t like this new argumentative side of you.” Her mother stared at her contemplatively. “I expect you to just do as I say.”