Lily knew something wasn\u2019t right when her husband started calling her weird about their garage and making up reasons not to go outside. She didn\u2019t expect to find what she did inside, though.<\/p>\n
You know how some things bother you but you can\u2019t quite explain why? So that\u2019s how it all began with Mike and our garage. At first, it seemed so harmless\u2014I was just trying to do something so simple as get rid of our old mattress. He then yelled, \u201cDON\u2019T GO IN THERE!\u201d \u201cI\u2019LL TAKE CARE OF IT!\u201d and everything changed.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t it seem strange? Who gets scared when a mattress goes into the garage? I ignored it, though. He might have been working on something. He\u2019s always been the type to mess around with things, fix them up, or start a new hobby. Soon after, he began acting\u2026 strange.<\/p>\n
I could just tell him I needed something from the garage, and he\u2019d get it right away. He would say, \u201cI\u2019ll get it for you,\u201d and I couldn\u2019t even move. As an answer, he would say things like, \u201cThere are chemicals everywhere\u201d or \u201cI just painted in there, and the fumes are too strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chemicals? Really? It wasn\u2019t a lab; it was a garage. And drawing? Since we moved in, he hadn\u2019t touched a brush. As a result, my interest level went through the roof. Why did he have to keep me away from that garage? What was so important about it?<\/p>\n
I tried to be cool by asking him about it in a normal way. But he got defensive, which made me think less of him. I just couldn\u2019t take it any longer one night after dinner.<\/p>\n
I leaned against the kitchen counter and folded my arms. \u201cMike, what\u2019s going on with the garage?\u201d It\u2019s been weeks and you still act weird about it.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t look at me; he just kept washing dishes and scrubbed a plate that was already clean. \u201cLily, it\u2019s not a big deal.\u201d It\u2019s only a project, I told you. It will be there soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot soon enough?\u201d I gave them a raised look. \u201cWhen? \u201d For some reason I think you might be hiding something from me.<\/p>\n
He looked very serious as he turned around and dried his hands with the dish towel. He tried to sound honest by saying, \u201cI can\u2019t show you yet.\u201d \u201cA birthday surprise for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When is my birthday? It would be a month after that. And let\u2019s be honest: Mike has never been good at planning shocks. He gave me a book of coupons for free back rubs last year. He\u2019s nice, but why the surprise? Not his thing.<\/p>\n
So I said I was going to buy it. \u201cWhat a surprise!\u201d So, all right then. I smiled and kissed him on the cheek. \u201cLet me wait.\u201d I didn\u2019t believe a word of it, though.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t sleep that night. It was making me crazy to think about what was so important that he had to lock me out of our own garage. That\u2019s when I had the thought. I knew he kept the keys to the garage in the pocket of his jacket, which he always hung over the chair in our bedroom. I would have to find out on my own if he wasn\u2019t going to tell me.<\/p>\n
I carefully got out of bed around midnight, while Mike was sleeping next to me. While my heart was beating fast, I squeaked up to the chair and slowly reached into his pocket. As I took the keys out, they made a quiet jingling sound. I stopped and looked over at him. He didn\u2019t move. Wonderful.<\/p>\n
Putting on my shoes and flashlight, I left through the back door. The garage was about 20 feet away from the house. It was separate and in the dark because of the moon. It was cool at night, but I didn\u2019t really notice. Too many thoughts were going through my mind.<\/p>\n
As I walked up to the garage with the keys in my hand, I had a strange mix of fear and joy. What was I going to find? The bolt slid back with a click as I pushed the key into the lock and turned it. As I reached for the handle, my fingers were shaking.<\/p>\n
When I opened the door, the smell of dust and old air hit me. The moment I turned on the light, I couldn\u2019t make sense of what I saw. A bed was in the middle of the garage. A woman was fast asleep on that bed, curled up under a blanket. A little boy, possibly about two years old, was lying next to her on a makeshift mattress on the floor.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t breathe. What did they look like? Why did they come here? Why didn\u2019t Mike tell me?<\/p>\n
The woman woke up and blink, her eyes getting bigger when she saw me standing there. She quickly sat up and wrapped the blanket around herself more tightly. \u201cWhat are you?\u201d I asked in a voice that was almost whispery.<\/p>\n
She said in a shaky voice, \u201cMy name is Sophie.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m\u2026\u201d \u201cMy name is Mike and I\u2019m his cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are you a cousin? I had no idea Mike had a cousin. Also, why would she sleep with a child in our garage?<\/p>\n
Before I could ask more questions, I heard the back door of the house slam. Mike ran toward the garage, and his steps could be heard. He yelled, \u201cLily!\u201d in a scared voice. \u201cWait, Lily!\u201d<\/p>\n
When I turned around, he was out of breath and standing in the doorway. He looked like he had just seen a ghost because his face was pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on, Mike?\u201d I pointed to Sophie and the kid and said, \u201cDo what I say.\u201d \u201cWhy do they have to be in our garage?\u201d<\/p>\n
He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Sophie and then back at me. He began, \u201cLily, I can explain,\u201d but I stopped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen explain!\u201d I lost it. \u201cBecause this doesn\u2019t make sense right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He let out a sigh as he walked inside and shut the door behind him. The girl here is Sophie, my cousin. We haven\u2019t seen each other since we were kids. Out of the blue, she showed up and asked for help. \u201cLily, she\u2019s homeless and didn\u2019t have anywhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
I saw Sophie holding the child close with tears in her eyes. As my anger began to fade, confusion and guilt began to take its place. I wasn\u2019t cold-hearted; I just couldn\u2019t stand the thought of anyone, particularly a child, living on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you just tell me?\u201d With less force, I asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s the big secret?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike turned his head away. \u201cBecause I know how tight things are for us right now, Lily.\u201d We are having a hard time making ends meet. I believed you would not allow them to remain here.<\/p>\n
I looked at him and tried to figure out what was going on. He was right; money was tight. Month to month, we were just about making it. Is this being kept from me? They were locked in the garage like it was a secret. It didn\u2019t make sense to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike, I would have understood,\u201d I said in a low voice. \u201cThere was no need for you to lie to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sagged his shoulders and said, \u201cI know.\u201d \u201cJust\u2026 I freaked out. \u201cI had nothing else to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
We all stood there in silence for a long time. I finally let out a sigh and looked at Sophie. \u201cYou\u2019re going inside,\u201d I told them in a strong voice. \u201cThere should be no need for anyone to sleep in a garage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie\u2019s eyes lit up with thanks, and she nodded and started getting her things together. Even though Mike looked calm, I wasn\u2019t ready to let this go yet. I turned to Mike and said, \u201cBut Mike, no more lies.\u201d We need to be honest with each other if we want this to work. Did you get it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He gave a quick nod. \u201cI\u2019ll keep my word, Lily.\u201d Don\u2019t lie anymore.<\/p>\n
Things seemed to calm down over the next few days. Sophie moved into the guest room with her son Leo, and we tried to get used to the new set-up. I had a strange mix of feelings: I was glad I had figured things out, but I also felt uneasy and couldn\u2019t quite shake it.<\/p>\n
Then, one afternoon, Mike was at work when the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, Greg, an old friend of Mike\u2019s, was standing there. He was holding a bag and smiling at you.<\/p>\n
He held up the bag and said, \u201cHey, Lily.\u201d \u201cLast night, Mike left this in my car.\u201d I planned to leave it there.<\/p>\n
I smiled and took his bag. \u201cThanks, Greg.\u201d I will make sure he gets it.<\/p>\n
Greg looked past me into the house as he was getting ready to leave. When he looked over at Sophie, who was sitting on the couch with Leo, his face changed. He looked shocked and asked, \u201cWait, what are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie stopped moving and looked quickly from Greg to me. \u201cDo you know her?\u201d My heart was beating fast again as I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d Greg said slowly, his eyes still on Sophie. \u201cShe used to work at that bar that Mike and I sometimes went to after work.\u201d It was her job to serve.<\/p>\n
I thought the pit in my stomach had finally stopped moving, but it started to move again. Sophia, I turned to you. My voice was steady but cold. \u201cIs that real?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie turned away from my eyes and looked down at her hands. It was a whispered \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cI did work there for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
I already knew what you meant. The worry I had been having was back in full force, and it was beginning to make sense. With my mind racing, I quickly thanked Greg for the bag and pushed him out the door.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t sleep again that night. I kept hearing Greg\u2019s words over and over again. Why didn\u2019t Mike say that he knew Sophie from the bar if she was just his cousin? There was something wrong.<\/p>\n
I chose to do something I never thought I\u2019d have to do the next morning while Mike was still asleep. I carefully pulled out a few strands of hair from a comb that Leo had used. After that, I did the same thing to Mike\u2019s comb. As I packed both samples in separate plastic bags, my hands were shaking. I needed to find out the truth and knew someone who could help me with a DNA test.<\/p>\n
After that, the days seemed to last forever. Going to work, going home, and making dinner made me feel more and more afraid. Then, at last, the results came in.<\/p>\n
I felt like the ground had been pulled out from under me when I saw the words. Leo wasn\u2019t just the child of Mike\u2019s cousin. His name was Mike.<\/p>\n
That night, I talked to Mike about the results while my hands were shaking. At first, he tried to say it wasn\u2019t true, but the proof was too strong to ignore. Everything that had been said and done made sense now.<\/p>\n
He told her, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Lily,\u201d with tears in his eyes. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was too late, though. The harm was done. That night, I packed my bags and left, leaving the guy I thought I knew and the life I had worked so hard to make.<\/p>\n
The hurt was too great to forgive in the end. Mike took away the thing I cared about most: trust. We had nothing else left without that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lily knew something wasn\u2019t right when her husband started calling her weird about their garage and making up reasons not to go outside. She didn\u2019t expect to find what she did inside, though. You know how some things bother you but you can\u2019t quite explain why? So that\u2019s how it all began with Mike and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28640,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28639\/revisions\/28640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}