I was sitting at the dining table with Lily in my lap eating my strawberries. Gabriel had just left us to go to work, and now I had to keep this little princess entertained for the next several hours. After we finished breakfast, I sat Lily up on the counter by the kitchen sink and I started doing the dishes.

"I'm just going to do the dishes, baby. Do you want some more strawberries or do you want to go find a book?" I asked her.

"Book." She said to me.

"Ok, you see that door right there?" I asked her, pointing to the door of Gabe and I's office.

She nodded her head.

"Alright, go in there and there's a bookshelf next to the big window with lots of books on it. You can pick one and sit in Daddy's chair while you read." I said to her.

She smiled and I helped her down, off the counter. She ran towards the office, going right in.

After I finished our dishes, I went to find her in her Daddy's chair, reading a book. I sat down at my desk and I pulled out my laptop, checking my emails for a few minutes and then Lily got up and walked over to me.

"What's wrong, Sweetie?" I asked her.

"Uhm, what're you doing?" She asked me curiously.

"I'm checking my emails." I said to her, pulling her into my lap. She took a paper from one of my boxes and got up on the desk, sitting on it and drawing a little bit.

I finished up everything I had to do and then decided it was time to go get my baby some clothes.

"Ok. I was thinking of going out and getting some shopping done... We could drop by the grocery store, buy some fruits, and then go get some nice new outfits. I'm also craving some ice cream... but I needed a few books and I think I might drop by the book store as well." I said with a smile.

"No! Take me!" Lily said, jumping into my lap.

"You wanna come?" I asked her with a smile.

"Yes!" She nodded vigorously.

"Alright, alright. I wanted you to come anyway." I said to her.

I got up and I took her upstairs with me. I got myself dressed and then we went outside and I opened my car, making Lily gasp. I strapped her into the back of the car while she looked around in awe. I think she liked the white and rose gold theme.

Lily hit her injured arm against the chair in front of her at one point and I panicked.

"Woah, is your arm ok, baby?" I asked her.

"Yes... I like this car. Is it Daddy's?" She asked me.

"It's mine." I smiled.

"It's nice." She said.

"Thank you, baby. How about from now on it's mine and yours?" I asked her.

"Yeah... when I'm big enough will Daddy let me drive it?" She asked me.

"If Daddy doesn't let you, I'll let you." I said to her, winking and making her smile.

I got in and looked into the rearview mirror, she had picked up a newspaper and she was looking at the picture. She looked interested.

I started the car and turned around to look at her.

"Hey, Princess? Where did you want to go first?" I asked her.

"Uhm... can we go get new clothes first?" Lily asked.

"Ok, off we go." I smiled.

I sent a long text to Em, telling her everything she needed to know when we got there so that Lily wouldn't have to be in any situation that might make her uncomfortable.

"What does dis-discrim-discrimin-ation mean?" Lily suddenly asked while looking down at the newspaper.

"Discrimination is when you treat certain people unfairly because of their differences with another group of people." I tried explaining simply.

"So if someone is different you're mean to them?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's discrimination." I nodded.

"So... this girl is seeing it happen?" Lily asked with a frown.

"What does it say, baby?" I asked, feeling so happy that she was asking me things and having conversations with me.

"It says she's facing discrimination... Uhm... because of her dis-disability." Lily read off the newspaper.

"Oh, that means that she has a disability and someone was treating her unfairly because of it." I explained.

"Like she can't do something properly because of a sickness?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, a disability is when someone has a condition that stops them from being able to do something." I explained.

"She's in a wheelchair... so she can't walk?" Lily asked.

"I guess so, or maybe she just needs the wheelchair sometimes and she can walk a tiny bit... we never know." I said.

"But you're a doctor." Lily said.

"Yeah, but I don't know this girl and I don't know exactly what her story is." I explained.

"But if they told you what was going on, you would know if she couldn't walk?" Lily asked me.

"Probably. If she told me what she was going through and I got some pictures of certain things in her body, like maybe her legs or her spine or her hips, then I could figure out why she needs that wheelchair." I explained.

"Pictures like the ones they took of my arm at the hospital?" Lily asked.

"Yeah." I smiled.

"Daddy said that they were trying to see my bones." Lily said, shivering.

I immediately turned the air conditioning off handing her one of Gabe's sweaters. She smiled and she pulled it on over her little head.

"So they saw my bones in the picture?" Lily asked again.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Only one bone, right?" Lily asked me as I parked outside of Em's clothing shop. "Because it's between my elbow and my wrist."

"Did you know that there are two bones between your elbow and your wrist?" I asked her, watching her gasp and look down at her forearm while I got out of the car and walked over to her door to help her out.

"How?" She asked me, as I pulled her out of the car and into my arms.

I set her on my hip and I closed the car door, locking it.

"Right here, and here." I said to her, gesturing to the spots where her bones were.

I kissed her cheek before setting her down on the ground.

"What about my hand, how many bones?" She asked me.

"How many do you think?" I asked her, watching her start her count as I lead her into the shop.

"Uhm... sixteen." She said, looking up at me with those wide blue eyes.

"Nope there are twenty seven." I told her.

"How?! Show me!" She said, giving me her hand.

There are eight here that make up your wrist, and then five here in your hand that hold the fingers into the wrist and then each finger has one between each two joints." I said to her, helping her count them.

"But there's only one here." She clarified with me, pointing to her upper arm.

"Yup, only one up there." I said to her.

"So from my shoulder to my fingers I have thirty bones?" She asked me.

"Yup." I smiled, taking her little hand and leading her inside.

Things were going so well, I was genuinely shocked. Then suddenly Lily looked around her and realized their were other people here, which made her cling to my leg.

"Let's just get you a few outfits and then we can go." I said to her, seeing how uncomfortable she was.

I ended up picking her up and she clung to me desperately. I looked at a few things with her but she wasn't responsive anymore. She was still wearing Gabe's sweater.

"Can Daddy come now?" Lily whispered to me.

"No, baby, he's at work." I said to her.

"I want Daddy." She said softly.

"He's got a few hours of work left." I told her.

"Can we go out of here?" She asked me.

"Sure." I said to her, waving towards Em who waved back with a smile.

I didn't end up buying anything for her, prioritizing her comfort over everything else. I carried Lily out of there and back to the car.

"What do you want to do instead of shopping for clothes?" I asked her.

"Book store." She said hesitantly.

"Alright." I smiled, driving us there.

Lily picked out five books and of course, I bought them for her. Then she wanted ice cream. I took us to the grocery store but she said she didn't want ice cream from a tub, she wanted a cone. So I ended up taking us to the closest ice cream shop, but unfortunately, there were a lot of people.

"No. I want Daddy." Lily said when she saw the crowd.

"It's ok, baby. I can carry you if you want... or we can just wait for Daddy to come home later and then come here." I said to her.

"I want... I want ice cream." Lily told me.

"I know, baby. That's why we're here... do you want to stay in the car while I get us some, or go get some ice cream with me, or wait for Daddy and come back in a few hours?" I asked her.

"Uhm... go get ice cream with you now." She decided.

But honestly, I should've made that decision and left her in the car while I ordered it. Because taking her down there was the biggest mistake I could've made.

We got down there and she refused to speak to me, she just hid her head in my shoulder and wouldn't talk.

"What flavour, Lily? Come on, Sweetheart." I sighed.

She refused to a speak, so I just got her a waffle cone with a scoop of strawberry ice cream in it and moved on with life. I needed to pay, but Lily wouldn't take her ice cream and she wouldn't let me set her down. So I ended up struggling to get the card out of my wallet and then paying before walking to the car with two ice creams and a child in my arms. As soon as we were away from the crowd, I set her down only for her to literally have a meltdown and start sobbing.

"I didn't want this one! I want a green one like you!" She cried.

"You can have mine." I said to her, feeling extremely conscious of the eyes that were on me.

"No! It's not in a cone! I want Daddy!" She sobbed.

I knew that Lily was just getting used to her new environment and just testing me out and adjusting. But this was not something I was prepared for. She was definitely acting like a brat and in front of everyone too. The sinking feeling in my heart when I saw how upset she was and how everyone was looking at me like I was a failure of a mother. I just hated every second of it and just like Lily wanted her Daddy, I wanted him too.

I found a solution, which was to plop the ice cream in the cone into the cup that I'd gotten and then scooping my ice cream into her cone. She refused to eat it until I scraped off all the little pink parts from the strawberry ice cream. I took her to the car and she refused to get in. I took her to one of the benches outside of the shop and she refused to sit there, I took her to a little park and again she refused. I had no idea what I was doing.

"Ok, where do you want to eat your ice cream, Lily?" I asked her.

"There." She said, pointing to the little benches near the shop.

"Ok... let's go." I said, sitting down at the bench and then watching her stand beside me.

"Sit down, Lily. Come on, baby." I said, feeling desperate.

She climbed into my lap and sat there. I was so confused. I had no idea what to think. Once she was finished her ice cream, my goal was to get in the car and go straight home. But she wasn't having that. For someone who wasn't very vocal, she was doing a wonderful job of alerting everyone around us that I was a complete failure at taking care of a kid.

I was hurt to say the least. This wasn't at all what I expected, she was doing so well until the ice cream fiasco. Now I could tell she was just doing it on purpose to make me feel horrible. I just felt so helpless. She just stopped halfway to the car and started saying she wasn't going to move until Daddy came back.

"Baby, let's go home where Daddy is gonna come when he's done work." I said to her.

"No! He'll come here." She said.

"Lily get in the car." I insisted.

"No! I want Daddy!" She said, her tears streaming down her face like rivers.

"Then let's go to him. Come on. Get in the car." I said.

"No!" She screamed.

I wanted to cry, I didn't know what to do. So I called Gabe's Mom in a panic.

"Hey, Sweetie." She said.

"I... I need help...." I said.

"What's going on?" She asked me.

"Did Gabe tell you?" I asked.

"About Lily? Yeah." She said.

"Well, I'm trying to get back home from the ice cream shop and there's a meltdown situation and I don't know what on earth I'm supposed to do." I said, my eyes watering as I tried to be quiet enough that Lily wouldn't understand what I was talking about.

"She's just testing you, Sweetheart. I know it's scary and frustrating, but you just have to be as stubborn as her and also be understanding." She told me.

"I don't know how to do that. She only likes Gabriel." I said, my tears getting prepared to spill over.

"It's ok, Sweetie. Don't let it get to you too much... I promise it's normal. Just insist that she's getting in the car and don't let the tears soften you up." She instructed me.

"Ok, will you stay on the phone?" I asked.

"Of course, Honey." She said to me.

"Ok... Lily, get up and let's go home. Come on, in the car." I said.

"No." Lily sobbed.

"Lily. I think Daddy is going to be very disappointed if he finds out you wouldn't come home." I said to her, knowing that was kind of a low blow, but I needed her in the car.

"No! I want Daddy!" Lily cried.

"Daddy is going to be at home by the time we get there, now please, get in the car, Lily." I said.

That's when the screeching began. This was so unlike Lily. She wasn't like this, she wasn't a brat. But she was being really difficult right now.

I stayed insistent that she get up and go to the car and then eventually she looked at me and she got up, running at me and sobbing in my arms.

"Alright, Sweetie, it seems like things worked out, are you good now?" Gabe's mother asked me.

"Yes, thank you." I said.

"No problem, Sweetheart. Go ahead and get yourself home." She told me.

"Alright. Bye." I said.

We both hung up and I carried Lily back to our car.

"I want Daddy." She cried.

"Me too, baby." I said, kissing her cheek.

I put her in the car and I sat beside her, kissing her forehead.

"You wanna read a book while I drive us home, Princess?" I asked her.

"No, I want Daddy." She told me.

"I know, baby, I do too. But he'll be a while before he comes home." I told her, handing her one of the books she bought.

I drove us home and she immediately ran to his chair in the office and curled up there. I ordered food from Angel's and had it delivered to us. She refused to eat anything, she refused to move. All she wanted was Gabriel and I couldn't do anything about that. I just backed off until Gabe came home. As soon as the front door opened, her eyes lit up and she ran to the door.

"Daddy!" She called out to him.

"Hey, Cutie, where's Momma?" He asked her.

"No. She's not Momma." Lily said, just rubbing salt in my wounds.

I walked out of the office and walked over to Gabe. He smiled at me and he wrapped an arm around me, kissing my forehead.

"You ok?" He asked me.

"Not really. We'll talk about it later." I said to him.

He nodded and Lily curled into him as he carried her into the house.

"How was your day?" Gabe asked her.

"Bad." She said.

I sighed and just decided that if I couldn't talk about it right now, I might as well just get some privacy for a little while.

As soon as I left them and got to the bedroom, I closed the door and I let the tears out. I felt like a complete failure. I knew that maybe I'd tried to rush things and Lily felt like she'd trusted me too quickly and she decided to back out a little. No matter what it was, I was hurt, and I knew I needed to build some trust with Lily.