Page 105 of Till Death Do Us Part

I raised an eyebrow. “What, you got a thing for girls with scars?”

“Well—no—I mean—” She blushed harder, shaking her head. “I just thought it looked a little like a rose. I almost wanted to draw it, when I saw it. But that’s—that’s a really weird thing to say.”

She was kind of cute, now that I thought about it. And I knew she couldn’t kill me if she tried. I wasn’t going there, though. But that didn’t stop me from tugging on the edge of my bra and saying, “What, telling me to take this off so you can draw me?”

“No—Petra!”

“Like one of your French girls?”

“Oh my god. Forget it! I’m never drawing you again.” She folded her arms, looking away. “No, worse. I’ll draw you looking scrawny, with tiny little stick-figure arms.”

“Ah. I beg mercy. My pride couldn’t take it.”

A knock came from the door, and I looked up at where Jenna poked her head in. “Hello, dears,” she said, her voice soft with worry. “Do you know where Elaine is?”

Caitlyn and I exchanged glances. “Elaine?” I said. “I think she’s in her room.”

“She’s not responding, if she is.”

Slowly, I stood up, my chest clenching. “Caitlyn, check the cameras around the place. I’m going to go force the door open and find out.”

I had a bad feeling about this.

Chapter 52

elaine

Mom’s house was familiar in all the wrong ways. It felt like I was somewhere I shouldn’t have been as I rushed up to the front door, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I knocked hard on the door, shouting into it.

“Mom! Are you there? Can you hear me?”

I heard a weak, thin voice coming from upstairs, not enough for me to hear it. I grimaced, and I tried the front door. Locked. I didn’t have keys.

She usually left the back door unlocked. I raced over damp grass as I went around to the back of the house, through the gate into the fence, and up onto the stoop. I was in luck—the door slid right open, and I shouted into the house again as I got inside. “Mom! Where are you?”

“I’m in the bedroom…” I could barely hear her voice, and my stomach turned as I raced up the stairs, my shoes stomping on the old, creaking wood as I went. I threw the bedroom door open, and I saw Mom lying in bed, her hands folded over her chest.

“Mom,” I gasped, and I stepped into the room, but I stopped short when something pressed into the back of my head.

Cold steel. Gunmetal.

“I… Mom?” I whispered, frozen in place. Mom frowned.

“I had to do this. You abandoned me.”

She lied. To me.

Again.

“Well, well, well,” a voice said from behind me, and it swept like ice through my veins when I recognized it.

Glenn. I dared tilt my head just a little, enough to see the door open to the bathroom, and in the mirror, I saw the two of them behind me—Glenn standing in the corner, and then with a gun to my head, Quayle.

“Your performance was excellent, Ms. Whitner,” Glenn said. “You don’t make promises you can’t keep, clearly. We’ll make sure your compensation is exactly as promised.”

“Mom?” I said, tears thick in my voice. “You… sold me… to them?”

She stood up, cold fire in her eyes. “You abandoned me. You abandoned all of us. This is your fault, Elaine. You think I wanted to do this?”