Chapter 2 - After the Music Stopped
Ms. Bennett ended the party without telling anyone why.
She moved through the living room with remarkable composure, telling relatives that Nia was exhausted and overwhelmed after graduation. Plates were wrapped. Cake was divided into containers. Balloons drifted against the ceiling while confused guests offered final hugs.
Nia remained upstairs in her bedroom.
Her diploma case lay unopened on the desk.
The blue graduation cap sat on her bed.
Her mother had retrieved it from Malik.
Nia could not look at it.
Downstairs, Malik refused to leave.
“I need five minutes with her.”
Ms. Bennett stood between him and the staircase.
“You needed honesty with her.”
“Ms. Bennett—”
“You had that opportunity for months.”
Malik looked toward the ceiling.
“I love Nia.”
Ms. Bennett’s expression hardened.
“You should be very careful with that word tonight.”
Jasmine had locked herself in the downstairs powder room.
Eventually her mother, Lauren Price, arrived after Ms. Bennett called.
Lauren entered with confusion that became horror when she saw her daughter.
“What happened?”
Jasmine burst into tears.
Lauren looked toward Malik.
Then at Ms. Bennett.
“No.”
Nobody had to explain.
Lauren closed her eyes.
“My God.”
Nia heard everything through the vents.
She sat motionless.
At eleven forty-seven, the house finally became silent.
Ms. Bennett knocked softly.
“Nia?”
“Come in.”
Her mother entered carrying tea neither of them believed Nia would drink.
She sat beside her.
Nia asked, “Did they leave?”
“Yes.”
“Together?”
“No. Lauren took Jasmine.”
“And Malik?”
“I told him not to come back tonight.”
Nia stared at the floor.
“Tonight?”
Her mother understood.
“I told him not to come back unless you invited him.”
“I won’t.”
Ms. Bennett took her hand.
Nia’s fingers were cold.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said there was something else.”
Ms. Bennett frowned.
“What?”
“She didn’t finish.”
Nia picked up her phone.
Forty-three missed messages.
Family.
Classmates.
Malik.
Twelve from Malik alone.
Please let me explain.
I know I destroyed everything.
Please don’t block me.
It wasn’t a relationship.
I swear.
I love you.
Please.
Nia blocked him.
Then she opened Jasmine’s messages.
Their last exchange was from five that afternoon.
Jasmine:
You look beautiful. I’m so proud of you.
Nia stared at it until the words blurred.
Her mother quietly took the phone from her hand.
“Enough for tonight.”
“No.”
“Nia.”
“I need to know.”
“You need sleep.”
“I slept while they lied to me.”
That stopped Ms. Bennett.
Nia’s eyes flooded.
“I laughed with them.”
Her voice broke.
“I hugged her.”
Ms. Bennett pulled her close.
Nia resisted for half a second.
Then she collapsed.
The tears came violently.
Not elegant movie tears.
Her body shook.
“I feel stupid.”
“You are not stupid.”
“They knew.”
“Yes.”
“They looked at me and knew.”
Her mother held her tighter.
Nia cried until her throat hurt.
Around one in the morning, Ms. Bennett finally persuaded her to lie down.
But sleep never came.
At 2:14 a.m., Nia went to the bathroom.
The pregnancy test was gone.
Malik’s chain was not.
It remained beside the sink.
Nia picked it up.
She remembered giving it to him in this same house.
Happy eleven months, she had said.
He had kissed her forehead.
I’m never taking this off.
Apparently he had.
Her gaze shifted to the bathroom mirror.
Three Polaroids were tucked into its frame.
Nia and Jasmine at thirteen.
Nia and Jasmine at sixteen.
Nia, Jasmine, and Malik at homecoming.
Nia removed the last picture.
Something fell behind the sink.
A folded piece of paper.
She assumed it belonged to Jasmine.
When she opened it, she found numbers.
$72,000
18th birthday
Bennett Education Trust
Attorney?
Access?
Her stomach tightened.
Below that was one sentence written in Malik’s handwriting.
Need to know whether she can withdraw without her mom.
Nia stared at the page.
Her grief abruptly sharpened.
The Bennett Education Trust had been created from part of her father’s life-insurance settlement after he died when Nia was nine.
Very few people knew the balance.
Jasmine knew.
Malik knew there was money.
But Nia had never told him the amount.
She rushed into her mother’s room.
“Mom.”
Ms. Bennett sat up instantly.
“What happened?”
Nia handed her the note.
Her mother read it once.
Then again.
“Where did you get this?”
“Bathroom.”
Ms. Bennett’s face changed.
“This is Malik’s handwriting.”
“I know.”
“He knows the exact balance.”
“I never told him.”
Ms. Bennett looked at her daughter.
The betrayal in the bathroom suddenly seemed connected to something neither of them understood.
“When was the last time you checked your trust account?”
Nia frowned.
“I don’t check it. Mr. Greene manages it.”
Her mother got out of bed.
“Get your laptop.”
“Why?”
“Because tomorrow we call your attorney.”
Nia looked again at the paper.
“What do you think Malik was doing?”
Ms. Bennett’s voice became very quiet.
“I don’t know.”
Then she pointed at the final word written beneath the balance.
Hawthorne.
It had been circled twice.
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And beneath it:
If she stays here, everything becomes easier.
