the floor had shifted beneath me.
“Who told you that?”
Her face crumpled.
“Derek.”
I went still.
She wiped her eyes.
“He said you and Dad agreed I wasn’t good enough for this program.”
I couldn’t speak.
Then she added something that made my heart ache.
“He said you were embarrassed to tell me because you knew how much ballet meant to me.”
I sat beside Audrey.
“Sweetheart, look at me.”
She kept her eyes lowered.
“I have never been ashamed of your dancing.”
She shook her head.
“But Derek said—”
“I know what he said. But it wasn’t true.”
I opened my phone and showed her the tuition payments.
Then the enrollment confirmation.
Then the email about recital auditions.
“I’ve been paying for your classes because I believe in you.”
Audrey studied the screen.
Her expression slowly changed.
“But he told me you wanted me to stop.”
