He’s not his father, she reminded herself in a desperate wish. This isn’t about his father.
“Did you go into that storage unit? And how did you get his name? Tell me the truth. Now.”
His big brown eyes filled with tears. “I don’t take anything. I just look.”
“Look at what?”
“Sometimes . . . sometimes people leave their locks open. That’s all.”
Lily thought her eyes might bulge right out of her head and bounce across the floor. Her whole body went hot with a toxic mix of anger and that not-so-deeply buried fear exploding to the surface.
“You don’t have any right, Everett! I asked you to check locks to keep people’s belongings safe, not so you can break in and—”
“You said I could talk to you,” he shouted. “How am I supposed to talk to you about important stuff if you just get mad?”
She took a deep breath, and then another, trying to control her horror. He was like his father. She’d tried so hard to make sure he wasn’t. “You can talk to me. I’m not yelling, am I?”
He huffed out a sigh that sounded clogged with tears. “You’re mad.”
“Of course I’m mad, Everett. How could you have broken my trust that way? It’s illegal. It’s trespassing. It’s a violation, and I’ll be fired if anyone finds out.”
“All you care about is your stupid job.” He jerked away, sliding the half-filled mug onto the table with a reckless shove. “And it’s not even a good job.”
That burn of terrified anger rose higher, warming her face. “It’s the job I have, and I’m thankful for it, and you should be too. Nothing is guaranteed in this life. Nothing. We have a place to sleep and food to eat, no thanks to your fa—”
She cut herself off, her breath coming too fast and hard, anger pushing her to say something awful about his dad. She wouldn’t do that to him. She never had, and she couldn’t start now when he was finally wrestling with all those questions. After a few deep breaths, the anger had faded enough for her to push past it. “Have you stolen anything?”
“I told you already I didn’t!”
“And are you telling the truth?”
He glared at the wall, his little chest rising and falling with gulps of air.
“Everett? Are you lying to me?”
“Who cares if I am? You lie to me all the time, don’t you?”
Lily jerked back as if she’d been struck, but this blow hurt all over; there was no specific injury she could clutch and protect. He knew. Oh God, he knew that she’d spoken to his dad. This week, last month, a year ago. How many times had Jones called in the past few years? Four? Five?
She felt none of the relief of having a terrible secret exposed; she felt only fear. “Everett . . .”
“I heard you tell that cop you never went outside at night, but you left the night before. You left for a long time, and I was worried, and you pretended it never happened. And then tonight? Why was that cop here again? What are you lying about?”
He was crying now, and Lily pulled him into her arms before he could resist. She wanted to cry too. Cry because she’d scared him, but also because he didn’t know. He still didn’t know the truth.
“Oh God, baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“What’s wrong? Something’s wrong and you won’t tell me! It’s about Dad, isn’t it?”
She could give him a little truth, anyway. She could stop lying about one thing. “I was helping Zoey,” she whispered.
“Zoey?” He went still. “With what?”
“I . . .” She cleared her throat. “You’re right. I did something wrong too. I let a woman stay here . . . more than once, actually. I let women stay here overnight when they needed to hide. I’m not supposed to, and that’s why I was hiding it from you and from that detective.”
“That’s illegal?”
“Not . . . not really. Except that I used a customer’s vehicle, and that was wrong, and I could get in a lot of trouble. It’s a violation, just like going through their things. So I’m sorry I acted like you were risking my job when I was already doing that. That wasn’t fair.”
He sniffed, pulling away from her a bit, but he seemed calmer now. Spent from his outburst. His anger about her other lies wouldn’t be so easy to assuage if he found out. When he found out. Like a child, she wanted to put off the consequences as long as she could, hoping they might just disappear into ash.