“I-I didn’t call the cops.Calling the cops was something that my mother would never, ever want me to do.”
“You knew whatshewas doing.You knew she was a killer.”
“I’d found her diary.”Soft.So soft.Why were her words so soft?No one was there who would overhear them.“I’d found it a week before, and I knew what she had been doing.And, no, I didn’t take that diary to the police.I hid it.”The way she still hid it.It was currently tucked under her mattress.“She actually kept a lot of diaries.She was always jotting things down.One book was filled with places that Magnolia had visited and places shewantedto see.One was filled with her dreams.One was…” The one currently hidden under Lily’s mattress in the guest bedroom.“One was dark.”So very dark.“I knew what she’d done, and I couldn’t go to the police because—what if they learned the truth?What if they took her away?Locked her up?She was my mother.”I loved my mother.Even though Magnolia had done terrible things.Even though she killed my father.How could she love Magnolia in spite of that?How could she love her and hate her at the same time?
I do.I just do…
“You told Magnolia what he’d done to you.”
Yes.She had.“The next morning.See, my elderly neighbor, Ms.Betty just thought I’d had a nightmare.Ms.Betty told my mother I was scared.That I’d probably watched a horror movie that gave me bad dreams.But my mother knew something was wrong.Even when we got home and I discovered the mess had been cleaned up in my bedroom, even when David smiled at her and told her how much he’d missed her and that he’d been so worried when he couldn’t find me in the house…she knew.”
“What did Magnolia do?”
“She told him to get the hell out.He left.Didn’t even put up a fight.She told me…even as the door shut behind him, that he wouldn’t be a problem again.She’d see to it.”
“She was going to kill him.”
Her eyes closed.“I begged her not to do it.Begged her not to hurt anyone.She told me to calm down.That it was okay.”Mother knows best, my Lily.Now, calm down.Come into the kitchen.I’ll make you breakfast and a nice cup of tea.You’ll relax and everything will be okay.”
“Lily?”
Her eyes opened.“She cooked for me.I ate her food with no hesitation.I drank the tea with warm honey in itwith no hesitation.Because this was my mother, and despite what I had learned, I believed with all of me that I was the one person she would never hurt.She loved me.”
His lips pressed together.
“Then I was on the floor.I was vomiting.I could feel my throat burning.My chest burning.My whole body burning as I heaved and struggled, and I knew I was dying.”
“Poison.”
Yes.“She rushed me to the hospital.They pumped my stomach…I don’t even know how many times.The doctors knew I’d been poisoned.They told the cops.The cops got a search warrant.They found the poison at our house.They connected the dots to my mother’s previous lovers…husbands…” They’d connected it all.“Everything spiraled when she rushed me to the hospital.When she chose to saveme.Because I could have died there, in our kitchen, and she could have covered it up.She was good enough with crime scenes that she could have concealed everything.”
“But she didn’t.She got you help instead.”
Lily nodded.
“She loved you.”
Yes.“So she saved me, but she got locked away.David Warren went on the press circuit to talk about how lucky he was to have escaped the Poison Princess.”Her mother’s stupid nickname in the media.“I got better.”She hated the memories of that sterile hospital room.The beeping machines.During that time, Lily had come far, far too close to death.Organ failure.It hadn’t just been a simple matter of pumping her stomach.For days, she’d barely clung to life.But she had recovered.Bit by bit.“I was in the courtroom every single day during her trial.I heard all of her crimes.Saw photos.Heard testimony.I witnessed every gory detail.And I saw my mother look back at me and smile.”She had her mother’s smile.Was that why she didn’t smile very often?No, no, I never smiled much.My mother used to tell me I was far too serious.“The DA thought she messed up when sheaccidentallypoisoned me.Others believed it was intentional.That she wanted to get rid of her daughter but had a last-minute attack of conscience so she rushed me to the hospital.”
“You didn’t believe that.”
Certainly not.“My mother doesn’t have a conscience.”
He just watched her.No judgment on his face.Simply hearing.Understanding.Not looking for a way to turn her words against her.Gage had always been looking for a weakness, for something he could use.
Atlas simply waited.He didn’t push.
So she told him what she’d told no other person.“My mother didn’t poison me.She would never have put poison in my tea.I know that one thing with certainty.”She had the proof in the diary that she treasured so much.The diary she would have to burn.The diary that… “David Warren did it.”
“Sonofabitch.”
“He’d realized what my mother was.Sometimes, I wonder if he knew all along.Some people are truly drawn to darkness.I believe I mentioned that to you before.”
“Um, yeah, during our fun conversation with Dr.Owen at the hospital.Hybristophilia.”A nod.
“I’m impressed you remember the term.”
“I remember everything you say.You’re important to me that way.”A considering beat.“So David Warren was drawn to your mother because he liked the danger she represented.”
