Chapter 16 - Lily's First Birthday
Lily's first birthday was small.
My mother baked the cake.
Elena brought an absurdly large stuffed elephant.
Sam gave Lily a tiny toy calculator as a joke.
There were no photographers.
No chandeliers.
No public spectacle.
Just people who loved her.
Daniel was permitted structured contact under arrangements made through counsel.
He sent a gift.
A silver bracelet engraved:
TO MY DAUGHTER.
I stared at those words.
A year earlier, he had called her useless.
I put the bracelet away.
Not because I wanted to erase him.
May you like
Because one day Lily could decide what it meant to her.
Her story belonged to her.
