Page 61 of Silver Sinner

She's alive.

Layla. My Layla.

Time freezes around me like someone flicked a switch. She sits on the bed with both of her arms tightly embracing her sobbing daughter. Blood stains the side of her face, soaking into her hair so that it clings to her brow, along with a fresh shadow of bruises and marks. Dark marks encircle her wrists, and her tears roll red down her cheeks, catching the blood on the way and dripping down into the collar of her shirt. Maddie's equally distraught, sobbing and clinging to her mother with tiny fists wound into her shirt and her face streaked with tears. It breaks my heart to see a bruise on her tiny cheek and for the second between my arrival and Layla noticing me, a dark cloud of anger floods my chest.

"P-Pierce?" Layla chokes out. Despite her pain, she tries to straighten herself up as if there's any part of me that cares how presentable she looks.

"Layla." I step forward and fall to my knees in front of her. "Darling, I am so, so sorry." My hands clasp over hers, and immediately I feel how violently she's trembling as she sits there.

The moment I make contact, a fresh wave of tears bursts forth from Layla and she sags into my hold, catching Maddie between us. The little girl doesn't seem to care. Maddie cries freely while Layla's clearly wrestling between giving in to her upset and remaining strong for her daughter. Wrapping my arms around them both, I embrace them tightly and tuck Layla's head under my chin.

"I'm here," I say softly, swallowing down the pain that rises upon hearing her so distraught. "You're safe now. I promise. You're safe." Empty words, given that the horror has already happened, but vocalizing it is to calm her as much as to restrain myself.

She cries harder, incoherent words spilling from her lips. Behind me, the floorboards creak and Moses clears his throat to announce himself. I need to find out what happened, so after a few minutes of simply soothing them with my presence, I lean back.

"Layla. I need you to tell me what happened." Keeping the anger out of my voice is a challenge. "But maybe this isn't a topic for little ears. Would it be alright if Moses takes Maddie?"

"No," Layla barks immediately through her tears, and she tightens her grip on her sobbing daughter. "You can't take her!"

"I don't want to take her," I assure her calmly. "But we have to talk about what happened in the kitchen. Do you want her to hear that?"

Protest rises on Layla's tongue, then it dies as she contemplates how much she can say with her daughter present. After a few, long seconds, she nods. "You won't leave the apartment, right?"

"Not at all," Moses says. "In fact, I have ice cream and I heard Maddie has an excellent stuffed animal collection. Maybe she can show me?"

Talk of ice cream is like a switch for Maddie, who perks up and wipes her cheek with one fist. "Ice cream?"

"Ice cream," Moses repeats. "I wonder who can eat the most?"

"Me!" Maddie hiccups and then turns to Layla. "Can I, Mommy?"

"Sure," Layla smiles weakly. "Sure. Just stay close to Moses, okay?"

She slides from Layla's lap and rushes past me to Moses, who takes her hand and leads her up the hallway for the distracting treat. Once she's gone, I pull myself to my feet and sit next to Layla on the bed.

"I'm so sorry," Layla weeps, fighting to wipe her tears away, but they flow faster than she can keep up with. "I must look terrible." She pulls at her t-shirt, dragging it away from her body, and then returns to wiping her tears.

Unable to stop myself, I take her hand. "Layla. Something awful happened here tonight and I need you to tell me all of it. Every detail."

"Why?" She looks from my hand to my eyes. "Shouldn't we call the police? Your men… they wouldn't let me."

"I will deal with the police," I assure her, biting back my knee-jerk irritation at the thought of them. "But first, I need to know what happened."

"It was Amy," Layla gasps and a fresh wave of tears pour down her distraught face. "I-I thought she was my best friend but it was her. It was her." She shakes her head. "I opened the door thinking it was dinner and these three men broke in. I thought they were all men because they looked it and only two spoke. They hit me and they kept hitting me, and one went to get Maddie and I… I couldn't breathe. I was so scared. Then one hit me and I woke up in the kitchen tied to the stove."

My heart lurches faintly and I slide my hand from her palm to her wrist, where the dark bruises from her restraints are visible like a brand. She flinches at the touch but doesn't pull away.

"They were trying to rob me. They kept demanding money that I don't have. Kept yelling in my face and hitting me, threatening Maddie. Over and over I kept telling them that I have nothing but they were so convinced. So convinced." She drops her head, chin to chest, and chokes on a sob. "They knew everything about me and I didn't know how, until the ‘man’ with Maddie came back, and she spoke. That's when I heard her. She was so a-angry at me because… because…"

She chokes again, fighting to get the words out, so I move my arm around her shoulders and cradle her back into my embrace. Each word from her stokes the anger clogging my chest and restricts each breath, but my need to comfort her keeps a lid on things.

"We f-fell out because I found out she had drugs in the apartment from her drug-dealing boyfriend at the same time Maddie was there. We've been fighting. She hates me… hated. Oh God…" Layla sags into me. "They just kept going on and on, convinced I had money stashed somewhere, convinced I was hiding it and lying. As soon as I saw her, it made sense why, but then they killed her!" Her voice cracks. "They just shot her b-because I worked out who she was. Oh my God, she died because of me!"

"No," I say immediately. "She did not die because of you. That wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't it?" Layla sobs. "She hated me this much because I turned my back on her when I was angry. I-I don't know who the others were but I knew her, and she died because I recognized her!"

I tighten my embrace. "She died because she came here and threatened you. She made those choices, Layla. Not you."