Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 24: Lies

Chapter 24: Lies

LILY

"Liliana Amanda Sinclair." Clear, deliberate, and very scary.

Lily shivered from her feet to her head. It was very rare for her mother to call her full name. At best, it’d only be her first name and last name. But the middle name must mean that it was terrible. Maybe jail-bad?

"Mom..." squeaked the suddenly timid little girl.

"Do you have a good explanation for what you did today?!" Mom glowered, her arms poised on her waist while my Dad, Brother, and even Grandpa just looked at me.

"I went to see Big Brother myself because no one wanted to tell me the truth. And no one wanted to tell me when I can meet Big Brother." Lily looked at everyone, suddenly feeling like she was not in the wrong because she wasn’t the one lying.

She’s been apprehensive for a while now, and being interrogated like this pushed her over the brink. Tears started welling up, and she fought to maintain her ability to speak. "You all lied to me."

Then the dam broke, and Lily ended up crying her heart out.

Maybe it’s because I’m not trustworthy enough. The child started to think of all the reasons her family would’ve excluded her, and she felt even sadder than she did when she started crying.

"Lily," called the temporary tutor.

"Your family didn’t actually want to keep things from you. In fact, only about five adults and absolutely no other kids knew about it."

Lily hiccuped slightly while listening to Snow White explain.

"You see, we had to hide the marriage well because of bad people. There’s this group of people who tried really hard to sabotage us, so we wanted to keep it a secret to catch them. And we only managed to do that about four days ago."

Bad people? At the mention of bad people and sabotage, Lily’s brows furrowed together, suddenly imagining a whole new storyline.

"So it wasn’t because we didn’t think you were bad at keeping secrets but because you were too far. And the bad guys have been monitoring the transfer of information. You know how that works, right?"

"Are the bad guys dead now?" Lily asked with her fist up.

"Not yet. They’re hard to deal with, but we’ve already managed to deal substantial damage." Big Brother suddenly said, his face serious.

"Don’t do that again. If you had shown up like this before getting the wedding certificate, then the whole plan wouldn’t have worked." He added the child panicked, her eyes wide in realization.

"I...I didn’t mean to do that! It’s just that everyone was being so secretive around me..."

"The adults did that for your sake, too. The bad guys may decide to divert their attention, and you’re too far for us to protect. Even your Grandpa wasn’t informed until everything was more stable."

Oh! So even Grandpa had no idea. Seemingly happy at the thought that she was not the only one kept in the dark, Lily stopped crying.

"I’m sorry. I was a bad girl." The child said, a bit listless, her eyes still wet with tears and her face flushed from all the crying.

She grabbed at her dress before volunteering, "I will write a reflection paper to show my sincere apology." Lily said this as she taught how her family still loves her even if they had to hide things from her.

__

Meanwhile, the adults who watched the young child grab onto a sheet of paper and a pencil looked at each other.

They all went in here ready to berate her for today’s antics but couldn’t help it when the child started her tirade about lying adults.

So, instead of pushing further, the adults who were ready to scold ended up telling her about the unsafe practices she used to get to Lucian’s house.

Lily had always been one to follow her instincts, and her sense of justice had always been overwhelming, so they weren’t surprised that she would insist on discovering what really was up. They just did not expect her to investigate by herself, sneaking away just like that.

"Because of what you did, you will start your martial arts lessons immediately. If you dare do something like this, you must at least know how to protect yourself. That would be the consequence of your action. And no dessert for two weeks."

Surprisingly, it wasn’t just Lily’s face that blacked out from the punishment. Eliana blanched at the mention of withholding desserts. It was clear that the priorities of these gluttons were different from those of normal people.

Eliana jolted from the silence, realizing she needed to greet everyone now that Lily had settled on writing her self-reproach.

She greeted them and introduced herself to the Chairman, whom she had just met for the first time. Oddly enough, for all the time she had known the Sinclairs, it was only today that she had met the Chairman personally.

The Chairman greeted her back in a pretty warm manner for someone who married into the family without his knowledge. But unbeknownst to Eliana, this wasn’t the first time they’d actually met.

"I’d like to apologize for coming unannounced. We just ran out of options and time." She explained.

"Lily, we adults are going to talk first. It would greatly show us your remorse if you could stay there while you write, " said Lily’s father. This made the child focus more, ignoring the fact that the adults were talking without her again.

They all moved into the closest conference room, finally ready to discuss the important matters regarding this shotgun marriage.

In reality, they only had to explain most of it to the Chairman, but the ambiance felt like an interrogation that was only missing a lie detector test.

"Grandfather, what we just told Lily was the truth. And I think you have already heard of the most recent happenings before getting here." Lucian just started without warming up into anything, which should’ve surprised everyone. But by now, everyone in this room already knew how he operated.

"By the way, congratulations to you and your family for finally freeing yourself from their reigns." This is a sincere greeting from Lyle Sinclair to Eliana and her parents.

With a smile on her face, Eliana responded, "Thank you, Uncle, I wish you could’ve witnessed it."

"There’s a recording of that night, right?"

"Knowing my parents, they would’ve prepared for such a thing. I’ll have them send you a copy, Auntie." Eliana responded to the gossip-powered mother.

"Now that you’ve partially solved your problems, have you started reflecting on this new role you’ve gotten yourself into? Do you even know enough about what you’ve just entered?"

With the Chairman’s question, everyone turned towards Eliana, waiting for her to explain something they’d also found intriguing.

Lucian just sat quietly, as if none of this had anything to do with him. So Eliana just decided to say it as it is.

"Sir, I’m not confident about knowing everything. After all, I’ve been learning about new things almost every other day. But from what I know, this guy needs his attitude policed, and no one seems insane enough to do it properly. His original volunteers need far more divine help, so he had turned to me, someone desperate enough to sacrifice for the world."

Because who else would be insane enough to do this?