Chapter 1 - The Girl Standing Behind Her Father
The white towel hit the dining room table hard enough to make the silverware jump.
David Bennett stood over it, his chest rising and falling, his work jacket still hanging open. Behind him was his sixteen-year-old daughter, Nia.
Her once-white school blouse was smeared with brown gravy. Her braids had loosened around her face. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she was trying so hard not to cry that her jaw kept trembling.
At the table, Celeste Bennett had been cutting a piece of roasted chicken.
She stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth.
David pointed toward Nia.
“LOOK AT HER! Do you see what condition she's in?”
Celeste placed her fork down carefully.
“David, lower your voice.”
“Lower my voice?”
He gestured at the filthy towel.
“I came home and found my daughter outside the kitchen door, shaking, while you were sitting in here having dinner!”
Twelve-year-old Jordan stopped chewing.
His younger sister, Lily, stared at her plate.
Both children were Celeste's from her previous marriage, but David had helped raise them for almost four years.
He loved them.
That made their silence even harder to understand.
Celeste folded her arms.
“You've heard one side of the story. Nia had an attitude all afternoon, and I'm tired of her acting like she doesn't have responsibilities in this house.”
Nia looked down.
David noticed immediately.
“Don't talk about her like she's not standing here.”
“Then maybe she should explain how my kitchen ended up covered in gravy.”
David's expression hardened.
“She's covered in it, Celeste.”
“Because she wouldn't listen!”
The words came out sharper than Celeste intended.
Jordan glanced at his mother, then quickly lowered his eyes.
David moved closer to the table.
“Who made her clean that mess while you sat down to eat?”
Celeste gave a humorless laugh.
“You come home after being gone all day and suddenly you're the expert on what happens here?”
“I'm asking you a question.”
“And I'm telling you that girl isn't innocent!”
Nia recoiled.
David turned so quickly that Celeste fell silent.
“Don't blame my daughter to excuse what you've done to her.”
He picked up a sheet of paper lying beside Celeste's dinner plate.
It was a withdrawal form from the Lakeside Young Designers summer fellowship.
Nia had spent months working on her application.
David remembered her staying up past midnight drawing building designs at the kitchen counter.
He remembered how she cried when the acceptance email arrived.
Now, across the bottom of the page, someone had written his name.
David Bennett.
Parent or Legal Guardian.
Declining participation.
David lifted the paper.
“What is this?”
Celeste's eyes moved to the signature.
“It's a school form.”
“I can read.”
“Then why are you asking me?”
“Because I never signed it.”
For the first time that evening, Celeste looked uncomfortable.
David held the paper closer.
“Who decided my daughter couldn't attend the program she earned her way into?”
Celeste straightened.
“Somebody had to make a practical decision.”
“Answer me.”
“You're never here! You have no idea how much I handle while you're working.”
David slapped his palm against the table beside the form.
Jordan flinched.
David saw it and stepped back.
He was frightening the children, too.
His anger was justified, but the way he expressed it mattered.
He turned toward Nia.
She was still standing near the doorway.
Her hands were clasped so tightly that her fingers had gone pale at the knuckles.
“Nia, come here.”
She approached slowly.
David pulled out a chair.
“Sit down, sweetheart.”
Nia hesitated.
“Am I allowed?”
The question hit him harder than anything Celeste had said.
“Of course you're allowed.”
Nia sat at the very edge of the chair.
David rested a hand on her shoulder.
“Tell me what happened. You don't have to protect anybody.”
Celeste leaned forward.
“Nia, don't start making up stories.”
Nia's breathing quickened.
David looked directly at his wife.
“You don't get to answer for her.”
Then Nia reached for the paper.
Her hands were shaking.
“Dad,” she whispered, “the program isn't the worst part.”
David went still.
“What do you mean?”
Nia unfolded the second half of the document.
There was another statement underneath the withdrawal form.
And this one had Nia's signature.
She raised her eyes toward Celeste.
“She told me you wanted me to go live somewhere else.”
David felt the room turn strangely quiet.
Nia's voice broke.
“She said you were tired of having me here.”
He stared at his daughter.
May you like
Then he looked at his wife.
“Celeste,” he said slowly, “what exactly have you been telling my child?”
