“What is all this?”
Daniel took a deep breath.
“We wanted to wait a few more days.”
“Wait for what? Why are you hiding everything from me?”
At that moment, Lily took my hand.
“Mommy, Daddy didn’t do anything bad.”
Then she looked at Daniel. He nodded encouragingly.
Lily stood in front of the mirror, picked up her stuffed rabbit from the floor, and began to sing.
I froze after the very first word.
Six months earlier, Lily had suffered a panic attack during a school performance. After that, she refused to sing or even recite a short poem in front of anyone. The mere thought of people watching her made her hands tremble.
But now my daughter was singing.
Her voice was faint at first, but it gradually became stronger and more confident. Daniel turned off the faucet. He had been using the sound of the running water to hide Lily’s singing so I wouldn’t discover their surprise.
When Lily finished, I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Daniel pointed toward the calendar hanging on the wall.
My birthday had been circled in red.
“She wanted to sing the song you used to sing to her when she was little,” Daniel explained. “But she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to do it. Every evening, I whispered the next line of the song into her ear. That way, no one else could hear, and she didn’t feel pressured.”
Lily smiled shyly.
“There’s an echo in here. It makes my voice sound stronger.”
Daniel admitted that he had locked the door only because I had almost discovered the surprise several times. He hadn’t realized how alarming their behavior might look from my perspective.
I wanted to cry, laugh, and be angry all at once.
“Never tell our daughter to hide something from me again,” I told him. “Even if it’s supposed to be a surprise.”
Daniel nodded seriously.
