“Not much of one. Mom and Dad are divorced. Dad and I exchange Christmas and birthday cards,and that’s about it. Mom and I have lunch every couple of months or so. She tells me that I’m a grownwoman and should get a decent hairstyle and take that ridiculous thing out of my nose.”
“And if you mention your private life?”
“She sticks her fingers in her ears and sings ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ When she has no choicebut to acknowledge Mimi, she refers to her as ‘your friend’s daughter.’ ”
“Well, obviously we’re not gonna get much help on that front.”
Lily poured another glass of wine. “Ben, nobody’s gonna help us except other queers, andnobody’s gonna listen to them anyway ’cause ... well, they’re a bunch of queers.” She slammed herwineglass so hard on the coffee table that the base broke, nicking her index finger. “Goddamn it!” Shestuck her finger in her mouth and sucked.
“Are you okay?”
“No, I am most certainly not okay. My daughter is going to be raised by Republicans.”
Ben sat down next to her. “Lily, I need to ask you a question.”
“So ask.” The cut on her finger was almost a relief — a small dose of physical pain to distract herfrom the pain that mattered.
“Okay, I’m very serious here. Would you do anything to keep Mimi?”
She didn’t have to pause to think. “Yes. She’s all I have left. If anything had a chance of working,I’d try it.
“Even if it meant putting yourself in a hellish situation?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, buddy, I’m in a hellish situation right now. Stop being so damnedmysterious. What are you thinking?”
Ben sighed. “Okay. My family — they drive me nuts, but they have the two things that might getus out of this situation.”
“An AK-47 and what else?”
“Better than that. They have the two things in this country that can get you out of just about anysituation: money and power.”
Lily had always known that Ben was on the payroll for some family business he rarely did anywork for. The way Dez had told it, Ben’s parents kept him paid off so he wouldn’t come back to his smallnorth Georgia hometown and flaunt his homosexuality. “But from what I’ve heard from you and Dez,your family hasn’t exactly joined up with P-FLAG. Would they be willing to use their money and powerto help us?”
“Under the right circumstances.”
Lily smelled compromise — an odor she hated. But she had said she would do anything to keepMimi, and she meant it. She took a deep breath. “And what circumstances would those be?”
“Okay,” Ben began. “Suppose — just suppose for a second — that I’m actually Mimi’s biological