Every vein in my head throbs. I put a hand at my pounding temple. “You didn’t tell me so I could score better on the LSAT for Viv?”
“Yes. It was the smartest thing to do.”
The smartest thing… The words echo in my head. Mom’s death ranked below a stupid fucking LSAT. Why… Why did I ever agree to take the test for Viv? Yes, Karie demanded I do so if I wanted Nelson and her financial help to continue, but it was all for nothing. No, worse than nothing. I’m being punished for doing something unethical and vile. Mom died alone with nobody by her side because I took the easy way out.
I struggle to figure out some way I could’ve changed the outcome back then. And I hate myself for not being able to thinkof something because it feels like letting Mom down. Hell, I already let her down. More fresh tears roll down my face. “But later… Why didn’t you tell me Mom passed away?”
Karie snorts. “So you could behave like an out-of-control animal? You weren’t obedient and good when you thought your mother was at our mercy. How would you have been if you learned she was dead?”
“All this was forcontrol?” My voice cracks further.
“What else? If you’d been a good girl, it wouldn’t have been necessary.”
“A good girl who takes a test for her sister to sneak into law school, right?”
Karie’s face remains stony. Not even a flicker of shame.
“Would you have told me Mom died the day before the LSAT if I’d been ‘good’?”
“No. But I might’ve told you afterward.”
So it was my fault…because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut or let Nelson and his family walk all over me.Mom… I never got to say goodbye. “What happened to her? Where is she now?”
Karie smirks. “Don’t worry, we aren’t heartless, despite what you told your husband. We cremated her—”
A sob breaks through my hand over my mouth.
“—and scattered her ashes in Baltimore, near the hospital.”
My heart pumps with such pain that it feels like it’s going to burst any second. I make a fist and push it against my chest, hoping it will lessen the agony, but the anguish only intensifies. “You psycho bitch!” I pant. “Why would you do that to her? Why would you tie her to the fucking hospital where she was lying helpless, alone and dying? What kind of monster are you?”
“Shut up, you ungrateful bitch!” Mick shouts. “Who the fuck are you to talk to my mom that way?”
“Who the fuck are you to cremate my mom? Or scatter her ashes near the hospital? You weren’t her family! You were herhaters!” Abruptly, wrath rages through me, overwhelming the grief. They aren’t getting away with this. I won’t let them. I point my shaking finger at them. “I’m going to make you pay for this!”
“You dare threaten us?”
“Oh, it’s much more than a threat. It’s a promise!”
“You little…!”
Mick takes a step forward, and suddenly pain explodes in my cheek, my vision going bright then dark. My body tilts from the impact. My foot slips. I reach out to grab the railing, but my hand is too slick with sweat.
I tumble and roll. Instinctively I wrap my arms around my belly. The edges of the stairs cut into me, but my body barely registers the pain as the world spins.
Finally I stop, my back on the chilly marble floor. I think I heard Huxley scream my name from somewhere as something warm and thick trickles from between my legs and pools around me.
Chapter Fifty
Huxley
“How is she?” Emmett says as he rushes toward the waiting area with Amy. They’re both in their office clothes. They probably cut their workdays short—nobody has weekends at GrantEm. Grant follows soon after. Aspen’s already here, having arrived from their home.
I tilt my head, resting the back of my skull against the cool concrete wall behind me. I squeeze my eyes closed, but the vision of Grace lying in her own blood continues to haunt me. “I don’t know.” My voice is hollow, rough with fear and uncertainty. “They’re still checking her out.”
I pray the doc will hurry up and come out and tell me what’s happening to Grace and the baby. At the same time, I don’t ever want him to come out unless the news is going to be positive.
She can’t lose the baby after discovering how inhumanely her mother was ripped from her. She never got a chance to say her farewells, to get the closure she deserved back then. If anything happened to the baby… She’s one of the strongest women I know, but she might not be able to bear the heartache. And I will be helpless to shield her from the pain.
