Then I left the house.
Without looking back.
A month later, Lily arrived at the front door of the house.
Emma told me that later.
He had tried to call me for days.
My phone was off.
When he arrived, he found the new owners unloading furniture.
He thought it was a mistake.
Until they told him the truth.
The house had been sold.
The money was gone.
Me neither.
Emma told me that Lily stood on the sidewalk for several minutes.
Without speaking.
As if the world had disappeared beneath his feet.
That’s when he asked to see the cards.
He read them right there.
In the kitchen where he had said I was disgusting.
Emma said that when she finished reading, Lily sat down in one of the empty chairs.
And for the first time since her divorce, she began to cry for real.
But by then, I was already very far away.
In a small cafe facing the sea.
With a cup of hot tea in his hands.
The sound of the waves filled the air.
A place where nobody knew I had been a mother.
