Her words made my mind go blank. In that moment, all the pain, the grief and the anger surged within me. I couldn’t control it. Before I even realized what I was doing, my hand flew up and I slapped her hard across the face.
The sound of the slap echoed through the room and for the first time, Gilbert was speechless.
The slap seemed to freeze time for a moment. Both Gilbert and Lucy stood there, too shocked to react immediately. Gilbert's eyes blazed with anger, his voice rising in disbelief. "Lily, are you crazy? Do you even realize what you’ve just done?"
I ignored him, my gaze fixed coldly on Lucy’s swollen cheek. "If you dare to talk like that again, don’t blame me for what happens next."
Lucy, clutching her face, played her part well—tears forming in her eyes, her voice soft and pitiful. "Am I wrong? How can a child be sick and hospitalized every other day? If it's not you making him pretend, then what is it?"
I turned to Gilbert, searching for even the slightest trace of disagreement with Lucy's absurd claim. But his lips were pressed tight, refusing to speak. Yet his silence, the look in his eyes, spoke volumes. He believed her.
And that was all I needed to know. A bitter, hollow laugh escaped my lips—sharp and cold, full of irony. How could he, the father of my son, believe such a vile lie?
"Keenan was born with heart and lung insufficiency," I began, my voice shaking not with weakness but with restrained fury. "Since he was a baby, he’s been more fragile than other children. Every cold turned into something worse and it always ended in pneumonia. You think I made that up? You think a child would pretend to suffer just to get your attention?"
I paused, the memories of countless nights sitting by Keenan’s hospital bed flooding back. How could Gilbert not remember?
"You never cared," I continued, my voice breaking. "I begged you to take him to specialists, but you thought it was a fuss over nothing. If you had just listened, if you hadn’t brushed me off again and again, he might still be here."
Gilbert's face darkened, but he remained silent. He knew deep down that I was right. He had neglected us for years, too wrapped up in his own life, in Lucy.