Chapter 24 - THE WEIGHT OF SURVIVAL
Claire burst into the garage, unable to stay upstairs any longer. She rushed forward and pulled Lily into a desperate, crushing hug, sobbing uncontrollably into her daughter’s hair.
“I’m sorry,” Lily cried, clinging to her mother. “I didn’t want to do it anymore. It hurts so much, Mom. But I knew if I got better, we would lose everything.”
David stared at the two of them. He had prided himself on being the provider. He worked sixty hours a week. He thought he was carrying the world on his shoulders.
Instead, his fourteen-year-old daughter had been carrying them all. She had traded her childhood, her mobility, and her freedom, locking herself in a cage of pain just to pay her grandfather’s medical bills and save her father’s pride.
“We’re done,” David said.
Claire looked up, her face tear-streaked. Lily flinched.
“I’m calling the real estate agent tomorrow,” David said, his voice hardening with a resolve he hadn't felt in years. “We are selling the house. We are selling the shop. I will work three jobs if I have to. But you are never, ever putting that piece of metal on your leg again.”
Lily looked at the brace in the vise. “But the insurance... they’ll do an audit. If they find out I tampered with it, they’ll ask for the money back. You’ll go to jail.”
David walked over to the workbench. He picked up the rotary tool.
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“They aren't going to find out you tampered with it,” David said quietly.
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