CBB: Chapter Seventeen

The piano beckons me with black and white fingers. I sit and raise the lid without having to think about what I'm doing. I start with a simple scale and arpeggio, letting the easy motions flow. My fingers climb the keys, finding harmony and balance while my mind scrambles.

My mother's killer. My mother's death resolved.

Another scale cascades from my fingertips. The beauty is harsh against my reality.

I see Dante's blue eyes when I close mine. How do I tell him what his mother is doing? Family is everything to people like us. I don't want to cause problems.

What if Senator Norwood did kill my mother? What would I do then?

My hands falter despite the ease of the scale and I have to restart the scale. It's been ten years but he still frightens me. I still have nightmares of him coming to the city and finding me. He has only grown more powerful with time and made more political friends. He ruined my life once and still has the power to do it again. I know I'm not the scared twelve-year-o