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She heaves a breath. “My mother got a settlement, but that wasn’t enough either. All the money in the world couldn’t bring back my sister or her baby. In case you don’t know, my mother had a breakdown, leaving me more or less an orphan at the age of six.”
I listen. Intently, silently. Despite her insanity, my heart aches inside my chest. She’s suffered so much.
She glowers at me. “Do you know what it’s like to grow up in the system? Shuffling from one loveless family to the next?”
I silently shake my head, though I know what it’s like to move from one place to the next and never feel worthy of my mother’s love.
Her gaze shifts to my mother. “And you, Renata?”
Her lips pinched together, my mother says nothing.
I can picture her younger self sitting emotionless in the courtroom as Marley’s face hardens with rage.
“Tell me, are you sorry for what you did?”
“I was exculpated.” Twitching her nose, she makes a dismissive face. “I did nothing!”
“That’s exactly it. You did nothing!” Marley seethes. “Renata, your husband is guilty of sins of commission. He killed my sister and her baby. And paid the price with a life sentence, though the sick bastard should have gotten the death penalty. You, on the other hand, committed something worse…sins of omission. Did nothing. And got away with it. For all I know, you were complicit. Maybe you were the one who disposed of the fetuses…threw them in the garbage like they were trash…just the way you were about to dispose of my doll.”
The sickening image of my mother bagging a bloody newborn and tossing it into the trash fills my mind. As much as I want to push it away, I can’t. A bitter rush of bile rises to my throat as Marley continues. Her voice is a hiss, vile and venomous.
“You despicable bitch! You don’t deserve to live!”
On my next pent-up breath, she pivots. And before I can blink, she fires the gun at my mother. The bang reverberates in my ears as the smell of gunpowder wafts in the air. Gasping, I watch with wide-eyed horror as my mother slumps to the floor in a crumpled heap. The blood from the bullet hole quickly saturates her nightgown, spreading like a wildfire across the fibers. Then, across the tiles.
The blast of the gun has awoken Isa. She begins to howl. Trying to console her, I bounce her in my arms, but it’s more like a bad case of the jitters; the more I bounce her, the more she cries. My poor little baby girl is picking up on my terror.
“Give me Mia!” barks Marley, breaking into my shock.
Mia. I’ve heard that name before, but when, where and how?
“Who?” I squeak out, my voice shrill as a lark’s.
Pointing the gun at me, Marley rolls her eyes. “My daughter.”
Her daughter? Is she completely out of her mind?
“Her name is now Miabel Marie. Mia for short. My sister’s name was Mabel and my mother’s, Marie, in French. Isa will get used to it. Learn to love it.”
Her words shake me to the core. She is completely deranged. I need to stall her. Figure out a way to escape safely with my baby. My heart races. My mind races. Every nerve is on edge.
A wild thought. “Ned’ll be home any minute. I can hear his car,” I lie. “He won’t let you get away with this!”
She breaks into hysterical laughter. “Ned’s not coming home.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ned’s dead.” She laughs again. “Isn’t that poetic? Ned’s dead,” she repeats. “Or is it poetic justice? I’ve honestly never understood that phrase.”
Lightning flashes as confusion sweeps through me. “W-what do you mean? I got a text from him earlier saying he was twenty minutes away.”
“From his phone?”
I watch with imploding dread as she digs her free hand again into her bag. She holds up an object.
“Familiar?”
I resist clamping a hand to my mouth. Oh my God. It’s Ned’s cell phone, easily recognizable by the gold embossed, monogrammed phone case.
