<h4>Chapter 588: The Crushing Weight of a Single Truth</h4>


    This chapter is from Lily''s Perspective


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    As the silence between mother and daughter continued the tension in the room rose unchecked. For Lily, the whole conversation was rather pointless. She KNEW with one hundred percent certainty that Kat wasn''t manipting her. Not only was the taller girl horrible at manipting things, it was also out of character for her to even bother trying as well aspletely useless because Lily knew she''d do basically anything for Kat as it was. Sure Kat would do the same thing but that wasn''t the argument at the moment.


    On Evaline''s side she was trying to reconcile all this knew information. Despite recently trying to repair her opinion of Kat she had then been thrown a curveball in the form of real magic before getting introduced to her daughter''s Subus girlfriend. And that just answered so many questions in Evaline''s mind. Such as why Kat looked simr to Ste (she doesn''t) and why the behaved simrly (they don''t) alongside how quickly Lily and Kat became friends (it took weeks of effort on Kat''s part and nervousness on Lily''s).


    Or even if that was all a coincidence (despite the fact none of her assumptions were true anyway) Evaline was willing to believe that Kat had ulterior motives for her daughter. Perhaps she was after Lily''s soul (which isn''t even something demons trade in anymore because they''re basically useless) or was trying to get sexual favours. She was a Subus after all (ignoring Kat''s asexuality of course).


    On the other hand though… her daughter was clearly annoyed with her assumptions and had presented reasonable counterpoints to the all. What sort of mother would she be if she didn''t at least listen to her daughter… then again… if she was being influenced by Kat would she even know? So the two sat in silence. Evaline warring with her daughter''s autonomy and safety and trying to judge how likely it was Kat could be influencing her. It wasn''t getting very far.


    Two years of dislike wasn''t a short time and having so thoroughly soured her opinion of Kat it was hard for her to properly imagine a world in which Kat wasn''t the bad guy she''d been in Evaline''s mind. All the recent evidence said she was wrong though. The question for Evaline was… how much of that was genuine.


    Eventually it go too much for Lily. She still had the lingering annoyance from the initial conversation with Evaline and the fact she wasn''t quite willing to take Lily''s word on a few things. Thatbined with her more recent round of questioning had her barking out, "Any further usations to level at my girlfriend?"


    "Now don''t get defence here Lily-" started Evaline.


    "No Mum!" said Lily sternly, "Don''t try and say I''m being unreasonably defensive. Not only is Kat now my girlfriend but before that she was my best friend. MY ONLY friend for TWO YEARS MUM. I''ve defended her often but you hardly noticed that. I used to tell you all the little ways she differed from Ste but you ignored those two.


    "Eventually I just gave up trying to convince. Clearly it wasn''t working, and that''s fine. I understand that you have concerns. The whole thing with Ste was horrible for me. The fact that I can talk about it calmly" well she was pretty annoyed at the moment, but not about Ste, "is a miracle quite frankly. Did you know, despite that I still had a few nightmares with Kat in Ste''s ce? Her rejecting my the same way?


    "That was until somewhere around the beginning of second semester this year. I had that nightmare onest time before another version of Kat came in and punched the Ste version of herself in the face and say ''I hate bullies'' and I never had that nightmare again. So look. It''s not that I don''t understand your worry mum. asionally. When I was feeling sad and alone and I wasn''t sleeping properly… I had those worries as well. I saw that scene y out.


    "Sure it might seem silly now because I asked her out despite my fears and I she actually said yes, so if I was ever going to have that nightmare again I doubt that''s possible now. Still, I just… Kat is a different person. A better person." Lily also mumbled, "a more attractive person" before returning to full volume, "and I know she''d do anything for me. Just as I would her.


    "I just…" Lily took in a deep breath to calm herself. She''d been raising her voice continually except for that one mumbled sentence and at some point she''d stood up. When that happened she wasn''t sure but Lily let herself rx into the chair and try and breathe out some of her tension. "Ok. I… I just… I feel very strongly about this Mum.


    "I''m trying to share the secrets I''ve had for a while. Now that Kat''s going out with me, I had the confidence to just tell you. Sure, it took a bit of a push from the others as well, mostly Sylvie, but I doubt the Lily ofst week could have told you about magic. Did you know I nned to just tell you I''d be away for a week and thene back with a new body?


    "I thought that would be a bit of payback. And, if you didn''t recognise your daughter. Well… it depends how spiteful I was feeling at those moments. I''d either be crushed, or I''dugh and say ''maybe you''re more right than you know''. Of course, that would have been really mean to you but… I didn''t know how to talk about magic and I didn''t want to just reveal the fact Kat was a demon to you."


    Lily sucked in more air as she rested both hands on the table, clenched together in arge fist. She let her weight rest on them as the tension tried to build back up for a second before she let it all go. Too much drained out of her, and the darkness came in. Anger was drenched by a clinging sadness that racked her frame when she tried to breathe.


    Biting back tears Lily managed to get a few more words out. "Look. I''m sorry for kinda yelling, and I''m sorry that apparently we can''t have a conversation without someone getting angry but. Mum… Kat has probably been the most important thing in my life for a long time. Now that she''s my girlfriend I can admit it to myself and to others. That might not be the best thing, but now I also have a chance for magic. Magic Mum.


    "Sure, that''s still Kat''s doing, but I have something else to care about. Something else to drive me forward. And then you just… you decided you didn''t want to process the fact magic was real so that part of the conversation was difficult, and you found out Kat was a demon and then started throwing all sorts of usations."


    Lily stopped there as the felt tears started to leak from her eyes. Her words towards the end were starting to waver anyway and she didn''t really know what else to say. Evaline let out a long sigh as she saw her daughter crying. Taking slow careful steps she moved towards the chair next to Lily as she felt her own pang of sadness doubled by the fact that Lily was never one for crocodile tears. When she sat down and Lily didn''t even react to her presence Evaline sighed again before ever so slowly wrapping her daughter in a hug.


    Lily made a garbled choking sound and leant into the hug as much as she could. "You know I love you Lily. I just don''t want you to get hurt. I''ve heard so many bad thi


    ngs about demons and if magic is real, those stories must have some truth to it. I just worry about you getting hurt."


    Lily bit back a retort to think it over more. Sadly, her instinctual answer seemed to be right, so with shaking breaths she said. "Mum. I mean this in the nicest way possible, and I do love you… but the person hearting me the most at the moment is you."


    Evaline winced and tightened the hold she had on Lily. The words hit her worse than any amount of physical violence possibly could. No tantrum couldpare to the pain of hearing those words… and knowing they were the truth. Evaline released her own shuddering breath as tears started to well up in her eyes. She knew Lily hadn''t said that just to get back at her, and the pain was all the greater because of it. She could see the pain Lily had already endured from her words and the knife twisted deeper again.


    "I''m sorry" whispered Evaline. To herself. To Lily. To Kat. To the world. The weight of her mistake dropping on her shoulders like a tonne of bricks.