Chapter 28 - THE LINGERING THREAD
Later that evening, after Grandpa had been taken back to the facility and Lily was asleep in her room, David went out to the garage to turn off the lights.
The space was cleaner now. He didn't bring work home anymore. The red tool chest sat quietly in the corner, locked.
He walked over to his workbench to grab his keys.
As he picked them up, he noticed something tucked beneath the edge of his protective rubber mat. He pulled it out.
It was a small, manila envelope, addressed to Claire from a private genetic testing laboratory, dated three and a half years ago—right before Lily's accident.
David frowned. He had never seen this before. He opened the flap and slid out the single sheet of paper.
It was a screening report for a rare, hereditary degenerative muscle disease. The kind that slowly ate away at motor function during late adolescence.
Patient Name: Lily David.
Result: POSITIVE for genetic marker.
Prognosis: Onset of severe muscular atrophy expected between ages 13 and 16.
David stared at the paper, the blood roaring in his ears.
Lily hadn't been failing to heal because of the brace. The brace had actually been masking the early onset of a terminal disease. Claire had known for years, and instead of telling David the horrific truth, she had allowed him to believe the injury—and later, the tampered brace—was the cause of Lily's weakness.
May you like
He looked toward the house. Through the kitchen window, he could see Claire turning off the sink, completely unaware that the real reason Lily's legs were giving out was a time bomb that had only just begun to detonate.
David folded the paper, slipped it into his pocket, and turned off the garage light.
