A Heart Divided Read Online Free

time, offering new career opportunities. And my parents had mentioned that accepting such an offer could entail our relocating. But that had all just been theoretical. Now it was real.
    My father elaborated on The Plan. We’d be moving to Tennessee for a year. After twelve months, we’d “reassess.” Whatever the hell that meant.
    My gut instinct was to leap from the Barca and make them realize, by any means necessary, what they were asking of me. But experience had taught me that my parents didn’t react well to tantrums. So I was careful to keep my tone steady: “This is impossible for me.”
    “It’s Tennessee, Kit-Kat,” my dad said. “Not Timbuktu.”
    “Dad, I made Showcase. Do you have any idea what that means? I’ve worked toward this
for five years.”
    “You’ve worked toward becoming a playwright,” my mom corrected me. “And if you look at the bigger picture—”
    “You
look at the bigger picture.” My voice jumped halfan octave despite my quest for self-control. “How can you do this to me?”
    My mother sighed. “Lose the melodrama, Kate, please.”
    “No! You wanted me to find a purpose for my life? Well, I found one. You can’t just rip it away from me.”
    My mother pinched the bridge of her nose, something she often did when she was tense. “Kate, we’ve been completely supportive of your interest in theater, haven’t we?”
    I nodded warily.
    “Are you under the impression that you’re the only one in this family with a dream?”
    This was not going well. “No.”
    “Good. Because this is a dream job for your dad.”
    I looked at him. He sat there, eyes hopeful, while Mom fought his fight. It made my heart hurt.
    “I understand your disappointment,” my mom went on. “And I know that your life—all of our lives—will be somewhat different. But Vanderbilt University is in Nashville, and we can look into playwriting classes for you there. I’m still going to freelance—”
    “And I’m going to get my braces off and lose ten pounds before I start at my new school,” Portia put in.
    “The braces stay, Porsche,” my mother said. “And you’re not dieting.”
    I persevered, suggesting every option I could think of that would result in my staying in Englecliff. No, Gramma and Grampa could not sublet their Florida condo and movein with me. No, I could not live with Lillith’s family. Nor Nia’s. Out of options and defeated, I sank back in my father’s throne. My parents dictated what they considered to be generous terms of surrender.
If
we stayed in Tennessee for more than a year, and
if
Lillith’s family would have me,
maybe
I could live with them for senior year. Which meant I’d have one last shot at Showcase.
    As I trudged upstairs to my room, I thought how easy this was for them. When you’re forty, a year probably seems like no time at all. But at that moment, for me, it was forever.

3
    approximately one hour and fifty minutes. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.”
    “This is so cool.” Portia had her forehead pressed against the window, watching our plane cut through clouds and light. She leaned over me toward my parents, who were sitting across the aisle. “Are you looking out?”
    “It’s beautiful, Porsche,” my mom agreed.
    Portia tapped my arm. “Wanna switch seats?”
    I was reading
American Theater
magazine. Or trying to. “No thanks.”
    Her eyebrows knit. “Are you mad that you’re miserableand I’m happy? Because it’s awful when someone else is all happy for the same reason you’re miserable. I could
pretend
to be miserable if you want. But frankly, you’d see right through it.”
    I allowed that it was okay for her to be happy, and that I was happy she was happy. Then I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But my mind kept replaying scenes from the night before, when BB and Nia had thrown me a going-away bash. All my Lab friends had come dressed in God-awful country-western wear.
    Lillith had come, too. “I’ll call you every