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See how the girls would do then, you sniveling coward. They'd grow up as twisted and crazy as you are. Do you want that? Do you?
A chill crept up his spine at the memory. "It's the girls. They've been asking to see you."
She looked at him sharply, her eyebrows pulling together in a slight frown. "The girls?"
He searched her face for a hint that she was toying with him again. But there was no trace of pretense, no sign that she was faking her memory loss. "Our daughters, Savannah and Mary Katherine."
"Oh ..." She nodded, but the confusion remained in her eyes. "Okay."
"Come on in, girls," he yelled. The door opened. Savannah entered first, carrying the baby. She stopped at the foot of the massive bed. Katie followed quickly, melting like a formless apparition into the shadows behind her older sister. Only the jet black outline of her hair and a hint of lemon yellow ribbon were visible at Savannah's crooked elbow.
Jack stared through dull, tired eyes at his children. Their frightened faces tore at his heart. As always, the magnitude of his sin and shame sickened him. He and Amarylis had turned two vibrant, loving girls into shadowy, silent wraiths.
This marriage had been a bloody battlefield for years. And these two perfect, beautiful girls, their own children, had become the casualties. Prisoners of a war they couldn't understand.
"H-How are you, Mama?" Savannah asked in a hushed, respectful voice. Tess sat up a little straighter in bed. There was some-
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thing wrong here. Something ... strange. "Come closer, girls. I want to see you."
The taller of the two girls moved hesitantly forward. As she moved into the lamp's circle of light, Tess's heart wrenched. The girl was trying desperately hard to keep her chin cocked at a defiant angle. Her huge blue eyes stared emotionlessly forward, as if the wall were of utmost fascination. She was completely motionless except for the trembling in her chapped, work-reddened hands.
Behind her cowered a smaller child, her small, pink fingers clutched tightly in the blue gingham of her sister's floor-length skirt.
"Which one of you is Savannah?"
The older girl seemed startled for a moment, then said, "I?I am."
"I assume that's Mary Katherine behind your skirts?"
She nodded, flicking a long, mahogany-hued braid over her shoulder.
"How old are you?"
"I'm twelve. Katie's seven."
After the quick answer, silence descended once again. Tess got the distinct impression that it was the normal state of affairs with this family. Then someone cried. It was a hiccuping, sputtering sound like the whining cry of an un-greased engine.
Tess's gaze lowered to the bundle in Savannah's arms. "Is that the baby?"
Savannah bobbed her head.
Tess swallowed thickly. Fear and excitement merged together, bringing a slow, hesitant smile to her lips. "M-May I see him?"
Surprise flitted across Savannah's face. She stood rooted
to the spot.
The truth washed over Tess in a cold wave, made her feel
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sick and twisted-up inside. "You're afraid to let her ... I mean me hold him."
Savannah blanched. Chewing nervously on her lower lip, she edged closer to the bed and gently placed the baby on Tess's distended stomach. "N-No, it's just that you never wanted to hold Katie. I?I thought ..."
Instinctively Tess reached out to comfort the frightened girl. "It's okay, honey."
