A long silence.
Then she said,
“Grandpa has some health problems.”
“How bad?”
“Lily…”
“How bad?”
She sighed.
“Pretty serious.”
My stomach twisted.
“Is he going to die?”
She immediately pulled the car toward the side of the road.
The tires stopped.
For a few seconds, she just sat there.
Then she turned around.
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“No, sweetheart. We’re not talking like that.”
“But you look scared.”
She closed her eyes.
“Because I am.”
That answer frightened me more than anything else.
That evening, Mom called my aunt.
I was upstairs, supposedly doing homework.
I wasn’t.
I was sitting on the top step listening.
“I don’t know what to do,” Mom whispered.
My aunt said something I couldn’t hear.
Mom answered,
“He said it to Lily.”
Silence.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“Tonight.”
I leaned forward.
Then Mom said something that made my heart pound.
“I knew this day was coming.”
