Page 66 of Lilly

She rubs his hand. "You need to sleep. At least for a few hours."

He shakes his head. "I can't. Not until I find a solution."

"You're not going to find one when you're this tired."

"If I went to bed, I'd just lie there. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I need to figure out what to do. What to tell Lilly. Decisions need to made. There's no time to sleep."

My mom looks over at me for help on how to deal with my dad. I agree he needs to sleep but I also think he's right in that we have to make at least a few decisions before Lilly gets home.

We couldn't talk about this with her around, so Jade took Lilly and the kids to Harper's house, which is only about ten minutes away from my parents' house. They've been there all afternoon and had dinner there and had planned to come back at seven but I texted Jade and told her to stay over there longer. We need more time.

My dad flew back this morning and got here just after noon. Yesterday, he spent all day talking with William, trying to come up with a way to stop this but they couldn't come up with a solution.

"Okay." I stand up because standing and moving around helps me think. "Let's go over this again."

"Honey, we already—"

"Mom," I say interrupting her. "I just need to hear it one more time. We can't make decisions until we know exactly what happened." I turn to my dad. "Tell us again what happened after Dean walked in."

He sighs, his eyes on the floor. "He came into the room and sat right next to me, across from Phillip. He didn't notice me there. He avoided looking at any of us at first. He was too nervous. Too scared."

"So he doesn't want this," I confirm. "He doesn't want to be a member."

"I don't want to make that assumption. Although his body language indicated he was reluctant to join, his words didn't match. Never once did he ask if he could back out of this. Instead, he proceeded to tell us why he would make a good member. He said he's committed to our goals and looking forward to helping us achieve them."

"Those were his exact words?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Someone made him say that. There's no way he'd come up with that himself. It sounds scripted, like Phillip wrote it for him."

"Regardless, those were the words he used and he sounded sincere when he said them. This is a man who doesn't know how to fool people the way the rest of us do. I truly believe that part of him thinks this will be good. That the perks will outweigh the downsides."

"But he doesn't even know what those are yet. Isn't that what William said?"

"For the most part, yes. At this point, the candidates know very little about us. They're enticed with money and, in Dean's case, money and a job promotion. But they're given very little information about the organization and what they do. It was different when I was running the committee. Back then, we only considered outsiders who already knew about us, such as Kiefer. But now, they're bringing in people who didn't know we existed, so I understand why the members are being extra cautious. The problem is that the candidates don't find out these things until it's too late."

"Okay, back up," I say, pacing the floor. "Go back to the meeting. When did Dean notice you there?"

"Soon after he sat down. Phillip welcomed him, then told him to introduce himself and say a few words. As Dean spoke, he looked to his left and his eyes circled the table until they landed on me. When he saw me, he almost fell out of his chair. He quickly righted himself, then asked what I was doing there. At this stage, the candidates aren't allowed to know our names so when he said mine, the other men became alarmed, but then calmed down when Phillip suggested that Dean had probably seen me on TV."

"So Phillip acted like he knew nothing about Dean's connection to Lilly."

"Yes, he pretended to be shocked when Dean said that he knew me, whereas the other members truly were shocked."

"You're sure Phillip was the only one who knew?"

"You can never be sure of anything when it comes to them, but I assessed their initial reaction and body language, and based on that, I'd say that Phillip was the only one in on this."

"But he never admitted it," I confirm.

"No. We spoke after the meeting and Phillip laughed in my face, telling me it was all a coincidence. That there was no possible way he would know that Dean's son is dating Lilly."

"And when you asked him about Katherine, he said she knew nothing about it. That she had no involvement."

"Yes, but that's not surprising. I knew he wouldn't admit to that."

"And you're sure that Dean becoming a member automatically makes Reed a member? William confirmed it?"

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