Chương 9
Claire said nothing.
“How?” Sophie asked.
“I’m arranging it.”
“With Harrison?”
Eric’s gaze shifted. “Who told you about Harrison?”
“Mom.”
“Your mother should not discuss business with you.”
“She mentioned it in front of Aunt Claire.”
“That doesn’t make it your concern.”
“My school is my concern.”
“Your job is to practice and keep your grades up. My job is the rest.”
“You didn’t do the rest.”
The words seemed to surprise all three of them.
Eric sat back.
Sophie gripped the violin case handle. “Sorry.”
“No,” Claire said. “Don’t apologize for the sentence because it was uncomfortable.”
Eric looked at her. “Let me parent my daughter.”
“Then answer her.”
His face tightened, but he turned to Sophie.
“Harrison is delayed,” he said. “It is not gone. When it closes, I will have more than enough to cover Calloway.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“It will.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
He rubbed both hands over his face. “Then we make another plan.”
“Financial aid?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because we can pay.”
“Can we?”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Sophie’s voice became smaller. “Are we losing the house?”
“No.”
“Is the mortgage late?”
Eric went still.
Claire watched the answer form and fail.
“One payment was delayed,” he said.
“Three payments were moved.”
“Who told you that?”
“I heard you and Mom.”
“This is exactly why children should not listen at doors.”
“I live there.”
“You are not losing the house.”
“Then why did Mom take the bracelet to Harbor?”
Eric looked at Claire.
Claire shook her head once, telling him without words that this was Sophie’s disclosure.
He turned back.
“What do you mean, take it to Harbor?”
Sophie swallowed.
Her fingers tightened around the handle.
“She didn’t just get it appraised,” she said. “She asked about a loan.”
Eric’s expression emptied.
“She was going to take the money,” Sophie continued. “I followed her inside. She told me to wait in the car. When she went back to the desk with the bracelet, I grabbed her wrist.”
Eric stared.
“She pulled away,” Sophie said. “It broke between us.”
The clock ticked.
Eric stood.
Sophie flinched, not dramatically, but enough.
He saw it.
His face changed.
He walked to the window instead of toward her.
“Did she get the money?” he asked.
“No.”
“Did she sign anything?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she give them account information?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sophie, think.”
“I said I don’t know.”
He pressed both hands to the windowsill.
“Did your mother tell you to lie?”
Sophie looked at the violin case.
“Yes.”
Eric closed his eyes.
“She said you would leave,” Sophie said. “She said everything would be my fault.”
He turned around.
The anger Claire expected did not come. What appeared instead was shame so immediate that Eric seemed to lose height.
“I would never leave you,” he said.
“She meant her.”
He looked toward the door, as if Vanessa might be standing on the other side.
“I need to go home.”
Sophie stood. “That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
“You said your job was the rest.”
Eric’s mouth opened, then closed.
Claire saw the boy he had been after their father’s business failed, trying to explain to a utility employee that a check was coming on Friday. He had been seventeen and furious that anyone expected him to sound afraid.
“I made mistakes,” he said.
“What mistakes?” Sophie asked.
“Business mistakes.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I invested money I should not have invested yet.”
“Our money?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Sophie.”
“How much?”
He looked at Claire.
She did not rescue him.
“Most of our available savings,” he said.
The room became very quiet.
“And the house?” Sophie asked.
“The house is secure for now.”
“For now?”
“The loan is current.”
“Mom said it was late.”
“It was brought current.”
“With what?”
Eric’s shoulders dropped. “A line of credit.”
“On the house?”
“Yes.”
Sophie sat down again.
Claire could almost see the calculations failing behind her face. At sixteen, a house was not an asset or liability. It was the place where her music stand left scratches in the floor and where she knew which stair creaked after midnight.
“Why didn’t you tell Mom?” she asked.
“I did tell her.”
“Not all of it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed I could fix it before it became real.”
“It was already real.”
“Yes.”
Eric looked at his untouched coffee.
Claire said, “The financial aid application is due in twelve days.”
He shook his head.
“Dad,” Sophie said.
“No. We are not handing our tax returns to a committee at your school.”
“Why not?”
“Because people talk.”
“Who?”
“People.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is an answer when you’re older.”
Sophie’s face hardened. “I’m old enough for Mom to blame me for your marriage. I’m old enough to lose my school. I’m old enough to hear about Harrison but not ask what it is.”
Eric flinched.
Claire watched Sophie’s anger gather speed and recognized the danger. Truth could become cruelty when it discovered momentum.
“Sophie,” she said.
“No. Everyone keeps deciding what I can know after they use me in the lie.”
Eric looked at the floor.
Sophie’s voice broke. “Was I ever good enough for Calloway?”
“Yes,” Claire and Eric said together.
She looked between them.
Eric moved closer but stopped before touching her. “Your aunt did not buy your admission.”
“She bought everything after.”
“She paid tuition. She did not play your auditions.”
“Neither did you.”
The sentence struck harder than Sophie intended.
Eric’s face shut down.
Sophie put one hand over her mouth.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did,” he said.
He took his coat from the hook.
Claire stood. “Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“You need to finish this conversation.”
“I need to speak to my wife.”
“Then tell Sophie what happens next.”
May you like
He pulled on his coat. “I don’t know what happens next.”
It was the first completely honest sentence he had spoken that morning.
