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“I just wanted to see her, to hear her voice. She looks a lot like me—like Mother, in fact.”
He simply stared down at me for a few moments. Maybe he realized I was right, I thought hopefully, but that wasn’t it.
“What got into you? To do such a thing now, especially? You’ve just recently gotten married, started yourself off on a whole new life. To bring back that mess, that horror, now? Ethan’s beside himself with worry. Lucille is calming him.”
“If he really loves me, he should understand,” I said. My lips began to tremble. Tears glistened in my eyes. “You should understand, too. You’re my father. You should know me better than anyone can. You should feel my pain, too.”
He bristled. “What nonsense is this? What pain, Semantha? We solved a horrendous situation. You were so young. Your entire life could have been ruined, and we found a wonderful couple who could and wanted to raise her well. Besides, you violated a legal agreement. They have the right to sue us. At the least, they could get a court order forbidding you to come anywhere near that property and that child, and something like that could make the newspapers and television. You’d be putting not only us into a scandal but the Normans and the little girl!”
Cassie whispered in my ear.
“That’s Lucille talking and not you,” I said.
He looked as if he would explode. His shoulders swelled, and his cheeks puffed as his eyes widened. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him this enraged, and I was sure neither could Cassie.
“How could you say such a terrible thing? Lucille talking? Why, all that woman is doing right now is calming down your new husband, pleading with him to be understanding. Yes, she’s worried about the Heaven-stone name, but that’s important for you and Ethan as well as for us. You should thank your lucky stars we have someone like her here now, someone who can think coolly. As a matter of fact, it was Lucille who went to the phone and called the Normans. She’s the one who got them calmed down, too. I was far too angry to speak to anyone.
“This is a betrayal of me, of what I did for you,” he continued. “Why would you even think of going there without first discussing it with me? Cassie would never have done such a thing.”
“Cassie would never? Cassie told me to do it,” I said.
He blinked rapidly and wiped his forehead. “What? What did you say?”
“Cassie told me to do it. She said my daughter has Heaven-stone blood and will never be anything but a Heaven-stone. One way or another, she’ll come back to us.”
“Cassie was gone by the time you gave birth. She knew nothing of the arrangements, Semantha. You’re not making any sense. I don’t know what’s gotten into you or who put such ideas into your head, but you had better put a stop to this right now. And another thing,” he said “I’m going to arrange for you to see Dr. Ryan again. You obviously should continue with your therapist.”
“That’s Lucille talking again,” I said.
He glared at me and then walked out and slammed the door behind him.
“Well,” Cassie said, “from that reaction, you can readily see we are almost too late.”
Even so, I couldn’t help but sob. Ever since I could remember, I had hated Daddy’s being angry at me. He never had to punish me. All he had to do was show he was upset, and that was punishment enough for a daughter who so craved her father’s love. When anger was as intense as his was, forgiveness cowered in a corner, too frightened even to show its face. It was like waiting for the fallout of a nuclear explosion to pass.
“Get a hold of yourself,” Cassie snapped.
I took deep breaths and started to get out of bed when the door opened again. This time, it was Ethan. He closed the door and looked at me with what I thought was worry more than anger or confusion.
“What made you do such a thing?” he asked.
“I’ve never stopped thinking about her, Ethan. No matter how you or anyone would like it to be, a woman can’t have her child growing inside her and then cut herself off completely from her.”
“But . . . according to your own words, she was the result of a date rape. And besides, your father had solved the situation for you. Why would you dredge up all that now? We’re going to have our own child soon. You’ll be a mother again. There must be hundreds, th
ousands of young girls who were like you and who were grateful someone had found a way for them to go on and have a normal young life. I don’t know,” he said, pacing. “Maybe your father’s right. You probably should go back into therapy now.”
“Therapy won’t change anything.”
“Yesterday wasn’t the first time I heard you talking to yourself or someone else who wasn’t here, Semantha. You need a little help. I’m not the only one who’s heard you doing that, either.”
He plopped onto the cushioned chair.
“What do you mean? Who else?”
“Your roommate told me about your conversations with no one else in the room.”
“When?”
