Chapter 107
We Do Care
My mother's face drained of color. The fear of being judged, of doing something wrong in front of others, vanished in an instant. What replaced it was older, rawer, the fear every mother carries, the fear that she had failed where it mattered most. The polished floors, the perfect trays, the careful smiles waiting to be worn, none of it mattered anymore.
After a moment that felt too fragile to touch, I opened the door and stepped inside.
Lilith wasn't in bed.
She sat at her vanity, wrapped in a blanket, her shoulders rounded in on themselves. Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror, unmoving. Her face was pale, almost translucent, her eyes bright in a way that had nothing to do with fever. It was the brightness of someone who had been awake too long with her thoughts.
She looked smaller than I remembered. Not just thin, but diminished, as if the room itself had been slowly pressing in on her.
