Chapter 3 - The Signature That Wasn't His
David took the paper into the living room.
He needed a moment away from the dinner table.
Nia followed, carrying the document's second page.
Celeste remained in the dining room with Jordan and Lily.
David called Denise.
She was Camille's younger sister and the person Nia trusted most after her father.
The phone rang four times.
“David? Everything okay?”
“Denise, did Celeste ask you to take Nia on Sunday?”
There was a silence.
“Yes,” Denise answered cautiously. “She called me last week.”
David closed his eyes.
“What exactly did she tell you?”
“She said things were difficult at home. She said you thought Nia might benefit from spending some time with me.”
“I never said that.”
Denise stopped speaking.
David heard a television in the background.
Then she asked, “David, what's going on?”
“She told Nia I wanted her out of my house.”
“Oh, no.”
“She also signed my name to a school form.”
Denise's voice changed.
“David, I told Celeste I wasn't making arrangements without speaking to you. She said she'd have you call me.”
David looked toward Nia.
His daughter was standing beside the couch, holding the paper against her chest.
“He never called,” Denise continued. “I thought maybe you'd decided against it.”
David thanked her and ended the call.
The first lie had been exposed.
There was no arrangement.
There had never been one.
And Celeste had known that.
Nia sat down.
David crouched in front of her.
“Why did you sign the statement?”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“Because she said she'd tell everybody I hurt Lily.”
“Did you?”
“No!”
The word came out louder than anything Nia had said all evening.
She immediately covered her mouth.
David reached for her hand.
“You don't have to apologize for defending yourself.”
Nia looked at the floor.
“On Tuesday, she made me stay home with the kids while she delivered food. I was supposed to finish my fellowship drawings, but Lily needed help with her project and Jordan had a test.”
She took a breath.
“When Celeste got back, she said I'd spent too much time drawing.”
David remembered that evening.
He had arrived late.
Nia had been asleep on the living room couch with an unfinished sketchbook in her lap.
He'd smiled at the sight, placed a blanket over her, and gone to bed.
He hadn't understood what her exhaustion meant.
Nia continued.
“She said if I kept being difficult, she'd have to tell you I was unsafe around the little ones.”
“That's why she made you write this?”
“She wrote most of it. She told me to sign.”
David looked at the uneven handwriting beneath the typed accusations.
He wanted to tear the page apart.
Instead, he placed it carefully on the coffee table.
He would not destroy the evidence of something his daughter had been forced to endure.
A small voice came from the doorway.
“She didn't hurt me.”
Lily stood there.
Jordan was behind her.
David turned.
“Sweetheart, you should be eating.”
Lily shook her head.
“Nia never pushed me.”
Jordan moved beside his sister.
“Mom said we shouldn't talk about family problems.”
David didn't interrupt.
Jordan glanced at Nia.
“But what happened today wasn't her fault.”
Nia straightened.
“Jordan, you don't have to—”
“I saw it.”
He looked frightened but kept talking.
“Nia was trying to get her papers. Mom took the folder away and told her she wasn't going anywhere Saturday.”
David listened carefully.
“Then what?”
“Mom was holding a spoon with gravy on it. Nia reached for the folder, and Mom pulled it back. Her arm hit the bowl. It spilled all over Nia.”
Lily added, “Nia cried because it was her good shirt.”
Nia's face crumpled.
It was the blouse Camille had bought her before she died.
For years, David had kept it packed away until Nia was old enough to wear it.
She had chosen it for her fellowship orientation.
Celeste hadn't simply ruined an ordinary shirt.
She had ruined something Nia treasured.
David opened his arms.
Nia leaned into him.
He held her as she cried.
When she finally pulled away, he asked one more question.
“Did Celeste let you clean yourself up?”
Nia shook her head.
“She said I could change after the kitchen was clean.”
David remembered finding her behind the house.
She had been wiping her face with the white kitchen towel.
He had taken it from her hands.
Now he understood why she'd been so desperate to hide the stained blouse.
David walked back toward the dining room.
Celeste was standing beside the sink.
“I spoke to Denise,” he said.
She stopped moving.
“She never agreed to take Nia. And I never asked her to.”
Celeste turned slowly.
David held up the withdrawal form.
“Tomorrow morning, I'm calling the school. We're going to find out exactly how far you took this.”
Celeste's eyes narrowed.
“Before you do that, you might want to consider what happens to this family if you start making accusations you can't take back.”
David looked at her.
May you like
It wasn't an apology.
It was a warning.
