Excerpt
What does it take to shatter a father’s dream?.
Hannah sashayed to the table and repositioned the proffered chair closer to where Laura sat, distancing herself from Arriona, who was busy drowning her breakfast in more maple syrup while she chewed on a piece of chicken breast.
Sophie’s eyes brimmed as she peered at Hannah. She was concerned. It had been almost three months since the girl came home. Everyone kept advising her to be patient. Kept saying, “She’ll come around in time.” Sophie’s curls swayed as she shook her head. The child was unhappy. Nothing helped. Her schoolwork was excellent. However, her teachers said, “She doesn’t mix well with the other children. When she agrees to have anything to do with them, she becomes peeved if she can’t be in command.” She didn’t strike out physically. Well, except for that one time she raked her fingernails down the face of the boy sitting behind her in class. They’d had to call it self-defense because he’d pulled her hair first. The poor kid probably had a crush on her. She was strikingly pretty and quiz-kid smart. She’d inherited her father Clyde’s green eyes and strawberry curls and her mother’s tilted nose, made exotic by the slightly slanted nostrils; complements of Clyde.
The psychological counseling wasn’t working. The child was too intelligent not to see what they were attempting to accomplish. Sophie wanted a new counselor, wanted someone to start fresh with Hannah.
CJ KNAPP 