The following week, Dr. Patel told us the treatments were no longer working and might only cause more discomfort. Lily perhaps had months, maybe less.
That evening, Lily asked whether she was dying. I wanted to deny it, but I could not lie. We sat beside her and cried.
After a long silence, Lily wiped her face.
“I want to see Cinderella’s castle,” she said. “And put my feet in the ocean.”
We could not afford the trip, but Tony answered immediately.
“We’ll take you.”
He accepted every extra shift available while I sold my mother’s bracelet. Friends donated airline points, a charity helped with Lily’s ticket, and we found an accessible hotel.
Somehow, we reached Florida.
For five days, Lily laughed more than she had all year. She met Cinderella, ate pancakes, and posed with us before the castle. Tony purchased the photograph despite our limited money.
“We need this,” he said.
At the beach, staff provided a wheelchair mat and a special chair. Tony pushed Lily toward the water, but the wave withdrew before touching her feet.
“Tomorrow,” she said.
“We leave in the morning,” I reminded her.
Her smile faded.
PART 2: THE MAN AT THE HOTEL
On our final morning, Lily slept upstairs while Tony loaded the rental car. At the front desk, the manager, Denise, handed me a sealed envelope.
“I thought your husband had already told you,” she said.
“Told me what?”
“A man named Robert paid for two of your arrangements. He arrived this morning and is waiting on the patio.”
Through the glass doors, I saw an older man holding our castle photograph.
Robert was Adam’s father.
After Adam’s funeral, Robert and I exchanged bitter letters. He accused me of keeping his granddaughter away; I accused him of disappearing when we needed him. He blamed grief, but I saw excuses. Eventually, the letters stopped.
I believed Robert wanted nothing to do with Lily; he believed I had shut him out.
I confronted Tony beside the car.
“You invited Robert here?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
Tony had found Robert’s final letter while searching for Lily’s birth certificate. It said we should call whenever Lily was ready.
Tony contacted him, and Robert arranged the character breakfast and beach equipment through the hotel.
“You brought him into our daughter’s final trip without asking me.”
“I didn’t know whether he was sincere.”
