Because of that Night (Book 2)

Chapter 45: Lila

"It's been a while since I last saw you," the woman said. She tapped lightly on her pen, giving Lila a kind, but knowing smile.

"Yeah, my insurance changed a while back, I wasn't sure if I had coverage for these visits anymore," Lila explained, she felt her shoulders tensing and make a point of stretching them more to release the tension. A silent sigh escaped her lips as she attempted to return the smile.

"What made you decide to look into whether you were covered?" the woman asked.

She continued to tap her pen, and Lila seemed to zero in on this one motion, listening to the slight tick, tick, tick as her nail hit against the plastic. She thought about Zooey's door slamming shut as she sped away in her car. When Lila had looked back at Hunter, his expression was nothing short of devasted. Neither she nor Hunter had been perfect in their lives, but it was as though in that moment of Zooey speeding away, of realizing they had been caught in a secret they had worked so hard to keep between themselves, that their worst nightmare had come true.

All those awful dreams where Lila would start awake, drenched in sweat seemed to be filled with all the irrational thoughts she had, yet the actual reality hadn't been far off. Zooey was hurt. She wasn't just hurt; she couldn't even believe that either of them had been so cruel to have done this to her. It didn't matter how many years had passed. Somewhere in Lila's mind, she had hoped that time could heal the wound of being left in the dark, but clearly, that had not been true. It had only been a few days since that day, and the anxiety and guilt Lila had surging through her body was so powerful it was as though she were electrically wired. If anyone were to so much as touch her hand, she was sure her energy would cause a blackout.

"Lila," the woman's voice cut in. The tick, tick, tick of the pen had stopped, and all Lila was left with was looking up into the woman's eyes.

"Sorry," Lila mumbled. She decided to settle on focusing on her own hands instead since the ticking had fully stopped. "What did you ask again?"

"I asked what made you decide to come back in. What made you look up your insurance policy, make sure you were covered for this session, and come in?"

Lila folded her hands together, tapping her thumbs against one another and thinking about what she should say. At one point in Lila's life, this woman had been one of the few people she felt that she could count on. She was a counselor out of a practice in Webhannet. Her name was Chloe. She was in her thirties, and when she and Lila had first met, she was still finishing up her master's degree. Now, she was working toward her PhD, she had told Lila. It had come up when they had first entered into this tiny, little room and exchanged niceties. Chloe had known Lila since when Michael had first passed away. Chloe was kind and understanding of Lila, but she also didn't just let things slide. She was tough, and Lila knew that.

"You know, things have just been overwhelming lately," Lila began to explain. She knew there was no use sugar coating it, but it seemed like before she could stop it, she had added in, "with Dylan, you know. He just started preschool."

"And how is that going?" Chloe asked. Her smile had brightened at the mention of Dylan.

Lila proceeded to talk for several minutes about Dylan: how he was thriving in preschool, that all of his teachers were very impressed by his independence, how he had already made a few friends in his class. She talked about Dylan's fears he brought up about not seeing Hunter anymore, how she had to reassure him that Hunter wasn't leaving anytime soon. She said how ridiculous it had been for him to think that way. She even laughed. All the while, Chloe listened intently, nodding, smiling when appropriate, and tapped her pen.

"How is Hunter?" Chloe asked once the conversation reached a lull.

"He's doing alright," Lila said, ignoring the stab in her stomach as his face painted in devastation ran through her mind again. "He's constantly trying to help in any way he can with Dylan which is great. He's finally budging on going back to school too, which I think will be really good for him."