Page 108 of Lilly

"I see," he says, sounding concerned.

"He didn't have a choice," my dad says. "He couldn't reach me on the phone and it had to be dealt with before someone saw it."

"Yes, fine. I'll take care of it."

The way he says it makes me think he'll be putting himself at risk by doing whatever he has to do to cover up what I did. But like my dad said, I had to do it. I couldn't just leave the body there.

We say our goodbyes, then I get up to leave. "I'll go talk to Lilly."

"Tell your mother I need to speak with her."

I go find Lilly and my mom. They're on the patio, quietly talking.

"Dad wants to talk to you in his office," I say to my mom.

"Okay." She gets up and leaves.

"Can we talk?" I say to Lilly.

"Go ahead." She kicks the chair out next to hers.

"Let's go to your room."

"Why can't we talk here?"

"Because I don't want anyone hearing us."

She gets up and follows me to her room. I shut the door, then go sit on her bed, shoving her pillows back and leaning against the headboard. "Have a seat." I point to the spot in front of me.

"What is this about?" she asks as she sits, crossing her legs in front of her.

"It's about what happened today. And why it happened."

"Are you going to tell me the truth or some made-up story?"

"The truth. I know you're angry that we haven't told you this before now but you should know that I didn't know either until I was your age. And even then, Dad didn't want to tell me. He was forced to. Just like I'm forced to tell you this now. This isn't something I wanted you to know, but now it's too late."

"Why wouldn't you want me to know?"

"Because knowing this will change you, at least I think it will. It did for me. It changed how I saw the world. It changed how I thought about things, my beliefs, how I interacted with people. It changed my whole life. I love my life and my family and I'm definitely happy, but I'd be a lot happier if I didn't know this existed and wasn't part of it. What I'm trying to say is that it's not like we hid this from you because we thought you were too young or too immature. We hid it because it takes away a piece of you that you can't get back. Like what you saw today? You can't unsee it. It'll always be there, buried in your mind somewhere. A memory you can't forget."

"You're scaring me, Garret."

"It IS scary. What I'm about to tell you is scary. And real. And something you can never tell anyone else."

"Okay. Just tell me."

"Dad belongs to a group called the organization. That's their generic name. I can't tell you the real name."

"What kind of group?"

"It's a secret society. Do you know what those are?"

"Not really."

"It's a group that's closed off to outsiders. It's very exclusive. Groups like this have been around forever, all over the world, and they all have different purposes, but what they have in common is that they're top secret and limited to a small number of members. This group that Dad is part of, the organization, started hundreds of years ago and our ancestors were some of the founding members."

"So wait, are you saying I'm a member?"

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