Page 234 of 4 Corinthians

"I'd rather stand," I told her, shaking my head. My memory flashed with instances I'd seen her over the years. As a kid in the park, before my assault, randomly at the library when I was in college, and then after my assault at the ice cream shop with Judah.

"I guess you want to know why, right? Why I was around."

"Yes."

"She was around?" Uri asked, confused, and I nodded. "When? Why didn't I know?"

"I thought it was random," I answered him, then turned back to his mama. "But it wasn't."

"No," she replied. "It wasn’t. In the beginning, I wanted to see what made you so special. Why Robert was infatuated with you so much. Even when you were a kid, he came home talking about you. It was always what his pet did. How proud of you he was."

"I was a kid."

"So was I," she laughed humorlessly. "How much older than you all do you think I am?" She looked at Uri and me. "Do you know?"

"No," Uri answered.

"I had your brother a few days before I turned eleven, and with you I was just shy of twelve."

"You were a baby," I softly said.

"I was," she agreed. "I went from living in my parents' house to here." She twirled her finger in the air. "My father said I was a business deal. The highest bidder had bought me, and that was Robert. He beat, raped, broke, and tortured me until I barely recognized the person in the mirror."

"You look fine now."

"Hatred does that to you," she shrugged. "I hated Robert, then you Corinthians, then Uri and Kenbral for getting away, then myself for not being strong enough to get away. Then the cycle started over. Robert, you, the boys, me. Repeatedly until I realized that I was never going to get away. And I think that's what Robert wanted. Me lower than low because that's when he started being nice to me. I got my GED, then went to college and then med school."

"You're a doctor?" I asked, and she nodded. It all started falling into place. There was no one Robert would've allowed to touch me. No man he would've trusted to inseminate me. But the woman he groomed from childhood? She would do what he said without hesitation. "You're the doctor that inseminated me."

"I am."

"Why? If you hated me so much, why did you do it?"

"Because I thought it would get Robert to love me," she replied. "In my mind, you were the enemy. Robert wanted your attention. He wanted nothing more than to come home to you every night. To love you. I'll be honest, I half-assed your insemination. I intentionally placed the sperm in the wrong place, but that damn Strong sperm always finds a way. You got pregnant despite my poorly executed placement." She shook her head. "Robert watched you damn near every day of your pregnancy. Making plans, designing your house. He just knew you would end up together."

"I never wanted Robert."

"I know that now," she insisted. "But then? It didn't matter. I just knew the man I loved, or thought I loved, loved you." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the countertop. "Then, I saw Uri. My baby wasn't a baby but a grown man, and I saw how he looked at you." She looked at Uri and sadly smiled. "He looked at you in a way that I'd never seen. It wasn't obsessive like Robert. I could see that even from a distance. He loved you. In a way that Robert would never." Her eyes watered, but no tears fell. "Robert saw it too, and he got mad. Beyond mad really. He beat me every time he saw y'all together. Every time he turned on the TV, he watched the security cameras. Every time you laughed or smiled, his reality set in. That you and Uri were always endgame. You always were destined for each other. He would never. Could never have his spot. So, I came up with a plan as he came up with his."

"He planned to kidnap Cori and Judah," Uri said.

"Yeah, he planned to kidnap them and kill you."

There was a part of me that felt bad for her. She was a victim of Robert's, too. Sold by her father, raised by her abuser, and forced to be a mother all before she was even a teenager. Her life was fucked up. Robert took everything from her. His control knew no bounds. Her education wasn't even her own. Robert made her inseminate me with what she thought was his sperm. Torture and pain were all she knew.

"So why did you shoot me?" Uri asked. "If you knew his plan, why did you shoot me?"

"To piss you off," she replied. "I know the body. I know where to hit to injure but not kill you. Shooting you gave you the fire to go after Robert finally, and I could finally be free."

"We came here to kill you," Uri told her. There was no remorse in his voice. Just straight facts. He felt nothing for his mama. No empathy for the little girl who'd been betrayed or the woman she'd become.

"I figured," she said, nodding. "Which is why I dressed the way I did." She pointed to her outfit. "I never get to dress up. I wanted my last outfit to be nice. There's one thing I ask first."

"What’s that?"

"I want to see Robert die first," she answered.

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