Page 161 of Liberating Lily

“Also, I kind of need it to drive my car,” Lily called out to Chuck Steak.

“Yeah, Lily doesn’t want to get stuck here.” Clem stared up at her with a serious look on her face, and Lily swallowed. She deserved that. She deserved anything that Clem wanted to throw her way.

She managed to sit up without feeling like she was going to slide right off the roof of the barn.

The lamb was still sitting in front of Clem, as though it was perfectly content where it was. “Do lambs normally just sit like that?”

“No, but see, Lamb Chop loves a ride on Donkey.”

“Donkey?” she asked. “That’s a donkey?”

“No, this is a horse. Please, Lily, tell me you know the difference between a donkey and a horse.”

Well, she thought she did, but apparently, she didn’t know the difference between a steer and a cow so . . .

Lily rubbed her forehead, feeling a tension headache coming on. She was exhausted after pushing herself to get here as quickly as she could. Once she’d made up her mind to come to Texas, she’d just wanted to get this over and done with. Only things didn’t seem to be going well so far.

“You named your horse Donkey?” she asked.

“Yeah, it seemed to suit him. Hey, Chuck, stop eating the tire, man.” Clem got down off the horse and put the lamb on the ground before she started walking toward the steer.

“Clem, don’t get too close to him. He’s dangerous,” Lily called out, wanting to protect her sister.

Clem turned to look back up at her. “What do you mean he’s dangerous? No, he’s not.”

“Yes, he is. He charged at me. That’s the reason why I’m up here. I flew up a ladder, or at least I think I did. The ladder’s no longer there. And this rooster keeps glaring at me like I’m invading his territory. Also, I think I saw a camel.”

“Yeah, you did. That’s Jessica. And you kind of are invading his territory. That’s also my thinking spot. Umm, not to sound rude, but how come you’re here, Lily?”

Lily tried to find the words, but they didn’t seem to want to come. She and Clem had spoken a few times on the phone since Harvey took off with her. But it had been a bit awkward and about nothing in particular. In person, things felt just as awkward.

“Are you here because you want half the property? Because I don’t have that type of money to buy you out. And Grandma June did leave it to me.”

God, did Clem think that little of her? Maybe there was no repairing this relationship between them. Maybe it was completely broken.

“I don’t want anything from you, Clem,” she said in a quiet voice. “I just came to, well, I guess, to tell you that I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Clem.”

37

“You’re sorry? What for?”

“Everything,” Lily said with a laugh that quickly turned to a sob. “Our entire lives, I guess. I just . . . I couldn’t figure out how to say this before. I’ve always wanted to please everyone else, but especially Mother. I hated it when she was angry at me, so I did everything I could to ensure that she was never upset at me. But nothing was ever good enough, was it? There was always something I was doing wrong, something that I had to do better.”

Clem snorted. “Welcome to my life. I never did anything to please the old witch.”

“No, but you also didn’t care, did you? You were always your own person. You were so strong, so independent. I didn’t allow myself to like this place because I knew how much Mother hated it. And I thought I needed to be just like Mother in order for her to love me. But she was never going to love me. That’s clear now. You saw me as nothing more than a pawn on her chessboard, someone to move around and manipulate.”

“You didn’t have to let yourself be manipulated, Lily. If you’d asked me for help, I would’ve been there for you. Instead, while I was stuck recovering from cancer, you slept with my boyfriend behind my back.”

“I didn’t sleep with Rick. I know you have no reason to believe me. You probably think I’m lying, but I’m not. It was a lie that Mother and Rick came up with in order to separate us, to keep us apart.”

“Yeah, well, if that’s true, why didn’t you just tell me?” Clem asked with a frown.

“I wanted to. I was coming to see you after your operation when she called me into her office and told me what Rick had told you. She said you wouldn’t want to see me, that you wouldn’t believe me. Our relationship wasn’t the best, and part of me thought that was true, but another part of me wanted to try. However, as I was leaving, she attacked me.”

“Attacked you? What are you talking about, Lily? Why would Mother attack you?”

“Because she wanted me to marry Rick. She wanted me to support him in his bid to get into the White House so she could use me for her own agenda.”