I looked at Dakota.
“Where is Emily now?”
Her expression changed.
“Emily passed away three months ago.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“She’d been ill. Lily has been living with me since then.”
I looked back at Tony.
“So Lily lost her mother three months ago, and you still haven’t told her you’re her father?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“Jennifer, I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of losing you.”
I shook my head.
“For four years, you kept this from me because you were afraid of what I’d do?”
“At first, Emily said she could raise Lily herself. I convinced myself that staying away would be better.”
“And later?”
“Then time passed. The longer I waited, the harder it became to explain.”
I looked at the little girl’s photograph.
“She didn’t deserve that.”
“I know.”
“You knew what it felt like for me to grow up without my father. You watched me struggle with those memories.”
