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“Yes, we do.” Her eyes shine like two green jewels at me as I stroke her hair in place.
“Mark makes me very happy, just like you. It makes me sad to be apart from him. When two people feel this way, they come together and make a family.”
“Like you and Daddy did??
?? Liane asks me to clarify, and my heart painfully squeezes in my chest, remembering the love we felt back when they were so little.
“Yes, exactly like that.” I hold back a dark chasm from consuming me.
“But.” Leon twists his body in his car seat, his eyebrows creasing with a dilemma. “What about us? Where will we sleep?” His face looks so troubled I want to laugh, but I refrain, knowing this is important to them.
“In your own beds like you should.” I beep his nose.
“Not fair. Why can’t he sleep in a guest bedroom?”
“Because they’re in love, silly, like Aisha and Uncle Leif.” Liane rolls her eyes as she chastises her brother.
“Ew!” They both gag, disgust written all over their features.
Just what the hell did they see to react this way?
“Um, yeah, we’re in love, and you’ll probably start seeing him around more often.” My eyebrows crease as I watch them making kissing sounds, teasing me back. “Gather your things, you rascals, and up you go. Be good, do you hear me?” I holler a warning as the car comes to a halt in the drop-in line. Liane opens the door to exit. I bend over to grab Leon’s lunch bag, as he dropped it in protest, and unbuckle him from his car seat.
“Love you, Mom.” He pecks my cheek and hops out to catch up with his sister.
After they leave, my driver maneuvers around the heavy traffic to get me to work, casting an observing gaze at me in the mirror from time to time. I make a call to my mother-in-law. Yesterday, we left too many loose ends, and I need to know what I must do to protect my family. I’ll definitely seek legal advice about this situation and see if I’m in peril to lose custody of my children, or this is just an empty threat.
Just before I’m about to hang up, she answers. “Good morning, Cassandra.” Her voice sounds chafed, raw, and not as privileged and put together as always.
“Morning.” I pause, thinking how I should approach this uncomfortable conversation since speaking in person makes it too hard for us to solve anything. “I thought this might be a perfect time to talk.”
“What do you want?” she drawls as if she is drunk, but I shake off the thought since she would never be caught in that state.
“To make peace. I want our relationship to be about being a family, not rivals.”
She sniggers at my words and then angrily spits out, “You are not my rival, dear, you are a dangerous beauty, too perilous to admire, too fragile not to love.” She heaves words in my ear as if she scrapes a sharp knife across my chest.
Instead of feeling defeated, I feel sad for her.
“I don’t deserve this treatment from you, Helen. I haven’t killed Logan. I barely survived the car crash myself. What you feel inside is just a third of a constant pain I suffer every day. I haven’t asked for this pain, you know?”
“He should have left you. This way, at least we could have protected him. But he stayed to guard the fragile beauty, battling her past demons. My son forgot about the other threats hovering around him.” My eyebrows crinkle as I try to make sense of her enigmatic words, coming from her drunken mouth.
“What are you talking about, Helen? What threats?” I try to control my erratic breathing so I won’t miss a forbidden secret slipping past her lips. “Helen, tell me,” I demand when she stays silent like a stone.
“You might not be the one who crashed the car, but you’re still the one who cost him his life.”
I gasp in disbelief into the phone as my mind races with suspicion pulsing against my temples.
When my driver stops, I jump out of the car, unable to stay any longer in a confined space with someone who works for them. I march toward the entrance of Fading Ink as if it could shelter me from what is to come.
“Are you saying it wasn’t an accident?”
She starts to wail, and my chest blasts with alarm.
“Helen, what happened that night? Tell me.” A cold tremor burrows deep in my soul and my legs start to tingle with a warning I am so familiar with. I’m about to pass out.
My back presses against the concrete wall of the building before my legs give out beneath me, and I slide down to the ground feeling the world pressing down on me.
