All around her were the butterflies. Real butterflies! She spun, delighted. The soft, brilliant blue of a forester. A bright yellow of a cloudless sulfur, a white clearer than an eye, a green that trembled with life. Spicebush, tiger! The friendly eyes of a common wood nymph, a hotshot of a brassy red admiral. And who could forget the blue of a pipevine that runs east to west?
That was the sky.
From the doorway Naomi stood, smiling.
Celia raised her arms, and the laughter poured out. She clapped her hands in joy, and all around her the butterflies rose, fluttering against her skin, turning her silver with their dust. She lifted her head. For the first time in her life, she was unafraid.
She turned to Naomi, mouth open in delight.
Walking slowly, Naomi stepped into the room. The butterflies landed on her, too, caressing her skin. She felt them on her hair, her arms, her hands, which she raised to look at, covered with blurs of moving color.
The butterflies took flight, and they circled around her head: once, twice, three times. Like the rotation of the sun, they said thank you.
Reaching, Celia felt for Naomi’s hand. She smiled at her.
“Now I know,” she said.
“What?”
“Who I am.”
Acknowledgments
This book was raised by libraries and love. I wouldn’t be a writer today if not for the public libraries of my difficult childhood, and the books that saved me with story. I will never forget the librarians of the downtown Portland, Oregon, library who expressed care for me when I, too, was a homeless kid. Thank you for showing me a path through the pain, and the beauty in the darkness.
Thank you to Luppi, Tony, Markel, Tamira, and to the other children I have been blessed to care for as a foster and adoptive mom. I am so lucky to be part of your journey. I love you beyond measure.
Thank you to my clients in my day job as a public defense investigator, including the trafficking victims, homeless, refugees, immigrants, veterans, and others who have filled my life. You have shared your pain with me, and I am honored to help you seek justice.
Thank you to my dear friends. This list is only partial: Stephanie, Sara, Alice, Andrea, Cheryl, Lidia, Karen, Julie, Mary, Laura, Eric, Jen, Ellen, Samantha, Liz, Jane, Rhonda, Diana, Michele, Kelly, Monica, Kristi, Wendy, Nayomi, Dianah, Cece, DeAnn, Maggie, Sheila, Bette, Ronni, Mary, Pam, Rod, Monica, Sia, Jane, Angela, Leah, Jo, Scott, Anna, Kristina, Jenny, Joe, Gayle, Jackie, Bill, Susan, Marilyn, BJ, Skip, Shannon, Zoe, Cathy, Katie, Christopher, Cate, Bill, Kate, and all the fine folk at the Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office. Thank you to Marty and Bill.
Thank you to my amazing team at HarperCollins: Gail, Doug, Tina, Rachel, Emily, Katie, Falon, John, Mary, and everyone else in Editorial, Production, Marketing, and Publicity. Thank you to Richard Pine, Eliza, Lyndsey, Nathaniel, and the wonderful folk at Inkwell. Thank you to Kirsty and Lettice for your valuable input, and Nicole Dewey for all the hard work.
And thank you, dear readers. Life is a story we tell ourselves and one another—we can make the story full of justice, kindness, and redemption. It’s up to us.
About the Author
RENE DENFELD is an internationally bestselling author, journalist, and licensed public defense investigator. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Oregonian, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and is the author of the novels The Child Finder and The Enchanted. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her children from foster care.
www.renedenfeld.com
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Also by Rene Denfeld
Fiction
The Enchanted
The Child Finder
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
the butterfly girl. Copyright © 2019 by Rene Denfeld. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover photograph © Yulia.M/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-269818-6
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-269816-2
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