Chapter 6
My father asked Harper to tell the truth.
Not loudly.
Not cruelly.
He pulled a chair for her and said, “No one will punish you for honesty.”
Harper looked at her mother.
Lucinda’s eyes warned her.
Harper looked at me.
Then she broke.
“She said Amelia had to learn humility,” Harper whispered. “She said Elena made everyone worship her, and Amelia was becoming just like her.”
I could not breathe.
Harper kept going.
“She said if Amelia lost confidence, the teachers would choose me. She hid the rosin. She loosened the strings once. She told Mrs. Bell that Amelia was sick.”
My father’s hand gripped the desk.
I had never seen him look so wounded.
Not angry.
Wounded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked me.
The question hurt even though he did not mean it to.
I looked at the floor.
“Because you loved her.”
His face changed.
“Amelia.”
“She said if I made trouble, you would send me to boarding school.”
Lucinda snapped, “That is a lie.”
Harper shook her head.
“No, Mom. You said it.”
My father stood.
Lucinda stepped back.
“You are listening to children now?”
“I am listening to my children now,” he said.
The word children made Harper cry harder.
Maybe because he included her.
Maybe because Lucinda never did unless Harper obeyed.
My father called Dominic, his attorney.
He put the phone on speaker.
“I want Lucinda removed from the house tonight,” he said.
Lucinda gasped.
“You cannot do that.”
Dominic’s voice came through calm and tired.
“Salvatore, if Mrs. De Luca is a legal resident, removal may require process.”
My father looked at the broken violin.
“She assaulted my daughter and a teacher witnessed it.”
Dominic paused.
“Then call the police.”
Lucinda laughed.
“You would call police on your wife?”
My father picked up the phone.
“Yes.”
The room went colder than winter.
Harper grabbed my hand.
May you like
I let her.
For the first time, we were both afraid of the same person.
