Chapter 4
After the recital, my father did not let Lucinda ride home with us.
He told his driver to take me first.
Then he turned to her in the school parking lot.
I heard every word because the car door was still open.
“You will not speak to Amelia tonight,” he said.
Lucinda’s mouth opened.
He raised one hand.
“Not one word.”
Her eyes flashed.
“She embarrassed this family.”
I flinched.
My father saw it.
His voice dropped colder.
“She honored this family.”
Lucinda looked around at the parents pretending not to listen.
“This is because of Elena,” she said. “Everything is always because of your dead wife.”
My father went still.
Even the driver stopped breathing.
Lucinda had never said my mother’s name like that in front of him.
At home, she said it when he was away.
Elena was too soft.
Elena spoiled you.
Elena left a shadow over this house.
But never in front of him.
My father stepped closer.
“You will not use my wife’s name to excuse your cruelty.”
“I am your wife now.”
“No,” he said. “You are a woman who broke my child’s violin.”
Her face drained.
I knew then something had changed.
Not fixed.
Changed.
The driver closed my door gently.
I sat in the back seat with Mrs. Bell’s violin on my lap and my broken bow in a plastic bag beside me.
Harper climbed into the car a moment later.
I looked at her.
She stared at her hands.
“I didn’t ask her to do it,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“I wanted the solo,” she said. “But not like that.”
I was too tired to answer.
She looked at the violin.
“She said your father only loved you because of your mother.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
Harper’s lip trembled.
“She said if I played your solo, he would finally notice me.”
I looked out the window at Lucinda standing under the school lights.
For the first time, I understood.
May you like
She had not only tried to break me.
She had broken Harper too.
