Part 10
That night, I didn't order catering.
I didn't ask the penthouse staff to cook for us.
I went into the kitchen myself, opened a simple box of mac and cheese—the cheap kind that Jason always forbade in his house because it was "low-class"—and prepared it for Lily.
We sat on the floor of the living room, using a blanket as a picnic mat.
Lily looked at me, her eyes wide.
"We're eating on the floor, Mama?"
"We are," I said, smiling. "But this time, it's a picnic. On purpose."
She giggled.
It was a sound I hadn't heard in what felt like a lifetime.
A pure, unobstructed sound of childhood joy.
As we ate, I watched her carefully.
She spilled a small drop of cheese sauce onto the blanket.
She froze instantly, her fork stopping halfway to her mouth, her eyes shifting to me with that familiar look of impending dread.
I didn't say a word.
I just took my own fork, scooped up a bit of sauce, and deliberately dropped it right next to hers.
"Oops," I said, winking at her. "Now we're both messy."
She stared at the double stain on the blanket.
Then, a huge bubble of laughter escaped her lips.
She laughed so hard her little shoulders shook.
She realized, finally, that the rules of the old world did not apply here.
In this room, she was allowed to be human.
She was allowed to be a child.
While she laughed, my tablet screen lit up with a news alert.
CEO of Apex Marketing Solutions, Jason Vance, steps down amid financial scandal and impending bankruptcy.
I didn't even click the article.
The headline was enough.
He was gone from his company.
His mother's house would be seized by the bank within the month.
Their social standing, their pride, their arrogance—all of it was being dismantled piece by piece.
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They thought they were punishing my daughter by making her feel small.
But they had only succeeded in reminding me of how large I had to be to protect her.
