Her tears looked strange beside the diamonds at her wrist.
“Evelyn, I really didn’t know.”
I looked at her.
“You keep saying that like ignorance forced your hand around my collar.”
She flinched.
“I was angry.”
“Why?”
“Because you left.”
“So you punished me for coming back?”
Her mouth closed.
I watched the question reach her.
For years, Harper had been allowed to treat resentment as proof that she was the injured party.
She had never needed to examine what she did with that resentment.
Now two hundred witnesses were examining it for her.
Carter stepped forward at last.
“Ev, maybe we should all talk somewhere private.”
I almost smiled.
Five minutes ago he had smirked while Harper exposed my scars.
Now privacy had become urgent.
“No,” I said.
His face tightened.
“No?”
“You were comfortable with this being public when you thought I was the one being humiliated.”
He looked away.
Admiral Reed remained beside me, but he did not speak for me again.
I appreciated that.
His salute had opened the door.
I needed to walk through it myself.
I picked up the torn piece of my blouse from the floor.
Harper watched me fold it once.
Then twice.
It was useless as clothing now, but I slipped it into my hand anyway.
My father stared at the scars on my back.
His expression finally changed into something I could not easily name.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
The question came quietly.
I had wanted to hear it for years.
Now that it had arrived, it felt incomplete.
“I tried to tell you who I was becoming,” I said.
“You kept telling me who you thought I was.”
Arthur looked down.
“I thought you were throwing your life away.”
“You told everyone I had.”
“I was angry.”
“That seems to be a family tradition.”
Nobody laughed.
He rubbed one hand across his face.
For the first time that evening, he looked his age.
“Are you really a captain?”
Admiral Reed glanced at him, but I answered.
“Yes.”
Arthur nodded once, slowly.
Pride flickered across his face.
The sight of it hurt more than I expected.
Because I knew that look.
It was the look he gave achievements he understood.
