The Book of Matthew (The Alex Chronicles Book 1) by K.T. Doyle Read Free Book Online

excuses for him. Maybe he couldn’t get off work. Maybe he was busy taking care of the house—you know, with my mom being away and all. But still, he knew how important this recital was to me. How could he have missed it?
    My father finally showed up just as the school janitor was locking up the front entrance doors for the night. He sped through the parking lot and pulled up next to the curb where I stood. He left the car running and got out to greet me.
    My little heart sank. I sang my guts out for him and he missed the whole damn thing.
    “Where were you, daddy?” I asked him.
    He bowed his head down to my sweet face, looked me softly in the eyes, and lied. Again and again. “Sorry, honey. Daddy got caught up at work.”
    “You just got off work now?”
    “Yes.”
    I noticed he was cleaner than I ever remember seeing him. “Where are your work clothes?”
    “They’re in the car.”
    “Oh. No boo-boos today?”
    “No, honey. No boos-boos.”
    I turned away from the window to erase the image from my mind. But the thought remained: had that been the first lie he told me, or the tenth?
    I didn’t know who to be the angriest with—my father for having deceived a child…his own daughter; my mother for forcing me to talk about it; or myself, for not having figured it out sooner. And I didn’t know who to feel the most pity for—my mother, the victim; my father, the deceitful coward; or me, the indifferent fool. I simply didn’t know who to blame.
    Why hadn’t my father destroyed those letters before they destroyed my family? Before they destroyed me?

 
     
     
CHAPTER 5
     
     
    I.
     
    I walked across Main Street to Kentmore Hall to meet Matthew Levine for my first private guitar lesson. The night was dark and cold and the late October sky was sprinkled with a few stars. It was just before 6 p.m.
    I knew the building would be locked so I sat on the curb outside the front door, wrapped my arms around me, and kept my head down. It was an effort to keep warm, mostly, but also to block out the annoying sound of the streetlight that buzzed above my head. It was a noise I hadn’t noticed before.
    I welcomed the time alone to think. What would happen with Matt tonight? I thought. Would there be another spark of attraction? Or would I be left hanging in my own waking dream again, clinging to a sliver of hope that my feelings for Matt would be requited?
    The thought of it all made my knees tremble. It could have been the cold, but I was aware enough of my own body to know that it took more than meteorology to give me the shakes.
    I lifted my head to breathe fresh air into my lungs and to stretch my muscles. When I opened my eyes, Matt was standing in front of me. He was slightly bent over with his hands on his knees, and he was struggling to catch his breath. He had arrived out of nowhere and his sudden presence startled me.
    “Oh, hi,” I said.
    He lifted his head to look at me briefly before lowering his gaze to the ground again, his chest heaving. “Am I late?”
    I saw his dark eyes in the dim light. Too cold and stunned to look at my watch, I said, “Right on time.”
    Matt unlocked the door and ushered me inside. He flipped the switch for the chandelier and we made our way to the stairs. He started climbing the steps, but I paused at the kitchen, unable to follow him. At that moment, my desire to go inside the kitchen was strong. I looked at the swinging door and the darkness that crept around it, from it, under it. Something was willing me to breech the threshold, an invisible pull teasing me to cross to the other side. It was like witnessing the aftermath of a horrific car accident—I couldn’t peel my eyes from it. The intriguing uncertainty that lay beyond was a force I couldn’t stare down. I had to go inside. I reached my hand out…
    “Alex?”
    I turned my head and looked up in the direction of the voice and saw Matt looking down at me from the stairway. “Are you coming?”
    Awakened from my