Chapter 12 - Victoria Comes Home
Victoria returned to the house six weeks after leaving.
Not permanently.
Not at first.
She came for family therapy.
Dr. Patel recommended a different therapist for the adults, Dr. Samuel Reed, so Lily’s sessions remained focused on Lily.
The first meeting included Aaron and Victoria.
The second included Lily.
Victoria sat on one end of the couch.
Lily sat beside Aaron.
Dr. Reed asked Lily what she wanted Victoria to understand.
Lily had prepared.
“When you say you’re my real mom because you raised me, it makes me feel like I’m bad if I want Natalie.”
Victoria’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily continued.
“When you cry every time I say I had fun with her, then I feel like I shouldn’t tell you.”
Victoria nodded slowly.
“I do that.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll work on it.”
“And don’t say she left me because she didn’t love me.”
“I won’t.”
“Ever.”
“Ever.”
Lily looked at Dr. Reed.
“I’m done.”
He almost smiled.
Victoria then asked whether she could say something.
Lily nodded.
“I’m afraid.”
Lily sighed dramatically.
“Everybody is afraid.”
That made Aaron laugh before he could stop himself.
Even Victoria smiled.
“I know. But I want to explain mine without using it as an excuse.”
Lily listened.
Victoria said she became part of Lily’s life when Lily was very young.
At first she did not expect to become her stepmother.
Then loving Lily became central to her identity.
When Natalie started asking for more contact, Victoria imagined losing birthdays, school mornings and bedtime stories.
She imagined Lily deciding her biological mother mattered more.
“So you lied?”
“Yes.”
“Because you thought I’d stop loving you?”
“Yes.”
Lily frowned.
“That’s kind of dumb.”
Aaron covered his mouth.
Dr. Reed looked at the ceiling.
Victoria laughed through tears.
“Yes. It was.”
Lily moved one seat closer.
Not into Victoria’s arms.
Closer.
The adult therapy was harder.
Aaron admitted that after Natalie’s relapse, he had enjoyed the simplicity of being unquestionably the responsible parent.
He had been hurt.
Angry.
Exhausted.
Natalie’s mistakes gave him moral certainty.
Even after her circumstances changed, he did not want to surrender that certainty.
Victoria admitted she reinforced it.
They had built their marriage partly around a shared story:
Aaron saved Lily.
Victoria helped raise her.
Natalie failed them.
The story was not entirely false.
That made it powerful.
But it omitted everything that happened afterward.
“Can our marriage survive this?” Victoria asked.
Dr. Reed did not answer for them.
Aaron looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Victoria nodded.
That honesty no longer terrified her as much.
At the next court review, Dr. Patel reported that Lily’s contact with Natalie was progressing appropriately.
Natalie had attended every scheduled visit except the one canceled after her friend’s death.
She had handled difficult questions without blaming Aaron or Victoria.
The guardian ad litem recommended expanding contact.
The judge approved four-hour unsupervised daytime visits twice monthly after a short transition.
Aaron’s stomach tightened.
Unsupervised.
Natalie saw his reaction.
She did not gloat.
After court, she approached him.
“If you need Dr. Patel to help plan the first few, I’m okay with that.”
Aaron nodded.
“Thank you.”
Lily’s first unsupervised visit took place at a science museum.
Aaron drove her.
Natalie waited outside the entrance.
Lily wore her yellow sweatshirt and carried a tiny backpack.
Aaron checked the backpack twice.
Water bottle.
Snack.
Emergency card.
Medication for allergies.
Lily rolled her eyes.
“Daddy.”
“I’m being a parent.”
“You’re being weird.”
“Yes.”
Natalie approached.
Aaron handed over the allergy medication.
“She knows how to use it,” he said.
“I remember.”
He almost replied, You haven’t had to manage it before.
He stopped.
Natalie noticed.
“Thank you.”
Lily hugged Aaron.
“I’ll be back at four.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to wait here.”
“I know.”
“Are you going to?”
“No.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I promise.”
Lily left with Natalie.
Aaron stood there long after they entered the museum.
Then he walked to his car.
For four hours he resisted checking Natalie’s location.
He had insisted on shared location as a safety measure.
The court found it unnecessary.
Dr. Patel suggested a simpler arrangement: Natalie would text once at lunch.
Aaron agreed.
At 12:31 his phone buzzed.
Everything good. Lily says dinosaurs are overrated. I disagree.
Attached was no photograph because they had agreed Lily’s visit would not become proof Natalie had to constantly provide.
Aaron smiled.
At four, Lily came running out holding a small fossil replica.
“I touched a meteorite!”
Natalie followed.
“Twelve times.”
“Eleven.”
“Twelve.”
Lily turned to Aaron.
“Can I go to her apartment next time?”
Aaron’s smile disappeared.
Natalie immediately said, “That’s something we can discuss.”
Lily groaned.
“You all discuss everything.”
Aaron laughed.
“Welcome to having complicated parents.”
That evening, after Lily went upstairs, Victoria returned from staying with her sister to collect more clothes.
Aaron told her about the visit.
Victoria listened.
Then asked, “Was Lily happy?”
“Yes.”
A shadow crossed her face.
But this time she let it pass.
“Good.”
Aaron looked at her.
She exhaled.
“I hated saying that.”
“I know.”
“I still meant it.”
That mattered.
Then Victoria placed an envelope on the table.
“I got something today.”
Aaron recognized the sender.
The county prosecutor’s office.
Opening his legal mail had not been forgotten.
Victoria had been charged with misdemeanor mail obstruction related to the court correspondence she knowingly intercepted.
She looked at Aaron.
“I thought saying sorry might be the consequence.”
Her voice shook.
“It isn’t.”
May you like
And for the first time, Victoria would have to face accountability outside the family she had hurt.
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