Chapter 20 - The Tooth Fairy
"I lost another tooth," she announced.
Claire froze.
For half a second, marble flashed in her mind. Blood. Cameras. Julian's hand around her wrist.
Then Sophie grinned.
There was a gap in the front of her smile.
No blood. No fear.
Just excitement.
"The tooth fairy better pay more now," Sophie said. "Inflation."
Claire laughed so hard she had to sit down.
"Who taught you that word?"
"Grandpa."
"Of course he did."
That night Sophie placed the tooth under her pillow.
Claire stood in the doorway after turning off the light.
"Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"You know what I remember about that party?"
Claire's chest tightened.
"You don't have to talk about it."
"I know."
Sophie rolled onto her side.
"I remember Grandpa came through the doors. I remember you held me. And I remember Dad looked scared."
Claire waited.
Sophie smiled sleepily.
"But mostly I remember you believed me."
Claire could not speak for a moment.
Then she crossed the room, kissed her daughter's forehead, and whispered, "Always."
When she stepped into the hall, she saw the tiny tooth-shaped envelope waiting on the nightstand.
A year earlier, a tooth on a marble floor had exposed a family built on silence.
This one meant something else.
It meant Sophie was growing.
May you like
It meant fear had not stopped her.
And for the first time in generations, nobody in the Bellamy family was going to teach a little girl that keeping quiet was the price of being loved.
