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He Let Us Count Coins While He Bought His Other Daughter a Million-Dollar Piano
Novelix
Completed
For five years, my husband Julian told me we couldn't afford a piano for our daughter. Anna and I sold homemade cookies and counted every coin, hoping to buy even a used one. Then I saw him in a music store, buying a million-dollar grand piano for another woman's child. When Anna ran up to him, he looked her in the eyes and denied knowing her. I took my daughter away and helped her build a future without him. Years later, she became a celebrated pianist—and Julian returned with an expensive piano, expecting the daughter he'd abandoned to welcome him home.
Chapters (2)
第1章
By the time Anna Mercer was thirteen, the world had decided she was a prodigy.
At her first major solo recital in Zurich, people asked for Rachmaninoff, Liszt, even the brutal encore she had written herself. She played whatever they requested. There was only one piece she refused: a simple lullaby her father had taught her when she was five.
She was afraid that if she played it, some tender part of her might wake up and forgive him.
So when Julian Mercer appeared outside our apartment with a custom concert grand, built by a celebrated craftsman and priced beyond the reach of most families, Anna only looked at the piano and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know that song.”
Julian’s eyes reddened. He reached for her hands as if he could place them on the keys and make the years obey him.
“Annie, you’ve always wanted a piano. I bought this for you. I’ll make it right. Whatever you want, just tell me.”
She drew her hands back.
“I can buy my own piano now. You should take this one to your daughter.”
He flinched as if she had struck him. “You are my only daughter.”
Anna gave him a small, puzzled smile.
“But you said Olivia’s little girl was the one who deserved to be yours. You gave her the piano you promised me.” She glanced at the grand. “It’s all right. Go take care of them. I have Mom.”
Julian had come expecting a reunion. Instead, he stood in the hall while my daughter closed the door between them.
He did not know that we had given him years of chances before we left. He had seen every one of them—and let them pass.
第2章
For five years, Julian had let us believe he was broke.
When Anna asked for a piano, he would kiss her hair and say, “Soon, sweetheart. Daddy needs to save a little more.”
I believed him. We lived in a drafty duplex with a kitchen window that rattled in the wind. I had a degree and a small daughter, but a long gap in my work history and the cost of childcare made even entry-level interviews hard to come by. I took whatever shifts I could, then set up a folding table at the park on weekends. Anna sang, I played guitar, and together we sold little bags of homemade cookies to people walking by.
Every night she asked whether we had earned enough for a used piano.
“Not quite,” I would say, counting the tips into a jar. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”
One month before her sixth birthday, the jar finally held enough for the cheapest upright in the music shop. Anna and I went downtown after school. As we stepped inside, I saw Julian on the upper level with Olivia Leland and her little girl, Madison.
Olivia leaned close to him. Madison sat on the bench of a gleaming concert grand, striking keys at random while the salesman praised its sound. Julian watched her with the easy pride I had begged him to show our daughter.
“Excuse me,” I asked the saleswoman, “how much is that one?”
“It was commissioned for Mr. Mercer,” she said. “Hand-finished by a German master. The price is just over a million dollars.”
For a moment, I couldn’t hear the room.
Anna tugged my sleeve. “Mom, is that the piano Dad ordered for me?”
She hadn’t understood who Olivia was. She only knew her father was finally buying a piano.
I looked at Anna’s faded dress and could not find a gentle way to tell her the truth. She noticed my silence and squeezed my hand.
“Maybe Dad has something important to talk about with that lady. We can come back another day.”
She said it bravely. Her eyes gave her away.