“Tell us you’ll accept that you’ve made a mistake and we’ll help you,” her mother said.
Her mother was practically begging her to lie, and the temptation to give in was strong. It would be so much easier, and she didn’t want to endanger her father. But something stubborn in her balked at what her mother was asking for.
She loved Kath.
It was crystal clear to her now, and it was exhilarating and illuminating and it turned everything upside down, because there was no way to resolve her love for Kath with the demands her mother was making. If she lied, she would betray Kath, and she refused to do that. But even if she could live with lying, would it make any difference in her father’s situation? If he hadn’t gotten his papers back, it was probably because he refused to lie about Calvin, not because Wallace Lai had seen her leaving the Telegraph Club. And if her father wouldn’t lie, why should she?
Lily took a deep breath. “I didn’t make a mistake. You can ask me as many times as you want, but I’m not going to lie.” The more she spoke, the bolder she felt.
Her mother abruptly stood up, shoving her chair back with a screech. Lily recoiled.
“You ran away!” her mother cried. “You left this house and didn’t tell anyone where you were going. Anything could have happened to you!”
Lily’s father reached out to put a steadying hand on her mother’s arm. She seemed about to say something utterly furious—her face was turning a blotchy red—but then, as if it took all her effort to restrain herself, she threw off her husband’s hand and stalked out of the kitchen. Lily heard her mother’s footsteps receding quickly down the hallway, and then a door slammed shut.
Shocked, Lily turned to her father. He seemed as stunned as she was, and finally their eyes met. He winced, and bent forward to stub out his cigarette. There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence. Lily glanced at Aunt Judy, who was watching her brother worriedly, but remained quiet.
Finally, Lily’s father scrubbed a hand over his face and said, “There’s no other choice, then. You’ll go with your aunt to Pasadena to finish the school year.”
Lily stared at her father uncomprehendingly. “What?”
“Your aunt and uncle have offered to take you away from here while—while things settle down,” her father said. “They’re making a big sacrifice to help you. They’ve even offered to take you down to Pasadena right away—tomorrow. There’s no reason to wait. Today you should pack your things, and tomorrow you’ll take the train to Pasadena. Judy thinks you’ll be able to enroll in the high school there. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” Aunt Judy said. “I know this must come as a surprise.”
Lily stared at her father, and then at her aunt. Her head throbbed painfully; it was the only real thing in the room. Everything her father and aunt said seemed utterly unbelievable.
“We think this will be best for you,” Aunt Judy said. “It’ll get you away from—from the complications here.”
It would take her away from Kath. She understood that immediately; it was like a gut punch.
“This is for your own good,” her father said. “You’ll be safe in Pasadena.”
They were afraid, Lily realized, that there would be more trouble if she stayed—trouble for herself, trouble for her father. And they wanted to make sure she wasn’t here in Chinatown, inviting gossip. They wanted to hide her away until people forgot what had happened.
“I don’t want to go,” she said, shaking her head.
Her father looked at her bleakly. “You’ll have to learn that sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do.”
Lily gazed at her father in disbelief, and then in growing anger.
“I live very close to the high school in Pasadena,” Aunt Judy said. “You’ll be able to walk there. Once we get home we can go right away and make sure you can enroll. If you can’t, your father said it might be possible for you to finish your senior year by correspondence. And, you know, maybe we can find you a part-time job or something at the lab. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Lily could barely register her aunt’s words. They were splitting her up from Kath.
“We want you to be happy,” her father said. “You’ll be free from distractions in Pasadena.”
Even though she didn’t know where Kath was or if she was all right, she had believed that eventually she would find out, and they would be together again. The idea that she might never see Kath again took her breath away. She felt faint; she felt as if she might dissolve into thin air.