Every Song He Stole Was Mine novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Glass

Jude's POV

Joanna did not cry.

I had watched her cry in a courtroom over eight bars of music, and I had braced for it again.

She stood in the doorway of Studio A, listening to a dead man call her sister the better singer, and her face went still.

The tape ran out and clicked.

"Jude," she said, without turning. "Roll tape."

"Joanna..."

"Console, channel one, the good microphone. Please."

I looked at Kiera, who had stopped crying and was watching with her mouth a little open.

Then I went into the control room and sat down at the board.

The glass between us was thick, and I could see them both under the work lights.

I threw the switch and the red light came on over the door.

Joanna crossed the live room and stopped in front of the microphone.

She took the little silver recorder from Kiera's hand, and Kiera let her.

She held it up to the microphone and looked at me through the glass, and I understood that the talkback was off.

I turned it on.

"You can hear him," Joanna said. "Now he can hear me."

Her voice came through the monitors, low and perfectly even.

"Dad. It's Jo. I'm in the room with Kiera now."

Kiera's hand rose to her collarbone and stopped halfway.

"You told her I write for the page. You were right. I wrote for the page because it was the only place you ever listened to me."

I realized I was gripping the edge of the board.

"You drove two hours every other weekend and told Mom you were seeing your brother. You made two daughters learn the same tune on two porches so neither of us would know."

Kiera made a sound.

"And you said you were proud of her to a tape recorder, in a truck, where nobody could answer you."

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