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“Will you be back tomorrow?”
“Oh…no, honey. We’re flying right back to Miami. I thought your father told you.” Lisbeth glared at me.
“I don’t seem to recall you mentioning that, Lisbeth.”
“Well, I’m sure I did.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.”
“Ahem. Well.” Yves cut in and stepped forward, holding his hand out to me. “Thanks for having us.”
I was both surprised and yet, unsurprised that Yves was managing to be much more cordial with me than Lisbeth. I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Lisbeth gave Lucy a showy hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Goodbye, my love. I will see you soon.”
Lucy hugged her back limply. Her eyes were tearing up.
I was afraid this would happen.
“Nice to meet you, sweetheart.” Yves patted her head.
“Well, we’ll be in touch.” Lisbeth said with a flip of her hair. She didn’t even notice Lucy’s mental state.
Lucy followed them all the way to the door, waiting for something, anything else. But it was too late. Lisbeth was gone, shutting the door right in her daughter’s face.
Silence fell over us. Cara and I looked at Lucy, waiting for her to burst into tears.
I stepped toward her. “Honey, I’m so sor—”
Lucy let out a scream and kicked off both of her giraffe slippers so they hit the door with loud thuds. Then, she descended into tears.
Cara and I both flanked her without hesitation, dropping to our knees to see if we could patch her up.
Hot tears dripped down Lucy’s face, her lower lip trembling. “Why doesn’t she like me?”
Cara rubbed Lucy’s back. “Oh, honey, of course she does. She’s just not so good at showing it.”
Thank God Cara was there. Otherwise, I would have told Lucy the truth. Because her mother was heartless, cruel, and didn’t deserve Lucy’s love. I bit my tongue, rubbing my little girl’s back, hoping that somehow, I could make her understand that I was enough.
Lucy sniffled. “It’s not hard to show that you love someone.”
“Not for you.” Cara wiped the tears off Lucy’s face. “That’s what makes you special.”
“But it’s not hard for you! And it’s not hard for Daddy! So it doesn’t make me special. It’s easy. So why am I so hard to love?”
I bit my lip, desperately holding back my own torrent of tears. “Nothing about you is hard to love, Lucy.”
Lucy held onto each of us with one of her hands, tugging us both toward her. “I need a hug.”
“Of course, sweetheart.” I kissed the top of her head.
As Cara and I embraced Lucy, we embraced each other. I could smell her perfume, even more potent than usual, and I felt her light brown hair tickling my cheek.
Slowly, Lucy’s distress mellowed in our arms.
And I just knew.
I couldn’t let Cara go so easily.
