The scenario in which Lily covers her husband's alcohol-related absences by lying to his boss would be described by the therapist that Lily's proble is lying to her husband's boss.
This way Lily only hides the truth and does not solve the problem (help her husband to quit alcohol).
Codependency is a health term used to refer to people who are strongly emotionally linked to a person with serious physical and / or psychological dependence on a substance (such as alcohol or illicit drugs) or with problematic and destructive behavior (such as pathological gambling or a personality disorder). A codependent person ends up assuming wrong behaviors to protect the person who is the object of concern and attachment.
An example of this can be seen in the question above, where Lily has codepency. We can see that because Lily is so attached to her husband that she is addicted to alcohol that she has lied about her husband's faults (lacking to be drunk) to her boss, even though knowing that lying is not good behavior.
She describe the cruelty in her famous novel Une Toms Cabin and thought it was terrible. She experienced and seen slavery because hecause her house was near a slave plantation
