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“She’s not my parent,” I corrected.
He shrugged and smiled. “A stepmother is still a parent.”
“Not for me,” I said. “I had only one mother. Lucille is my father’s wife. She is not my mother.”
“All right. Don’t get upset. It will keep you up. Get some sleep.”
He went to his closet.
Cassie stood there, nodding with that self-satisfied smirk on her face.
I turned my back on her and closed my eyes tightly. I lunged at the darkness, embraced it, and fell asleep rather quickly. When the darkness brightened and fell back, I saw myself walking slowly toward my cousin’s house. My daughter was outside playing in a sandbox and talking to a small doll. She was pretending to be the doll’s mother.
“I won’t forget you,” she told her doll. “Never, never, never.”
Then she looked up at me and asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m your mother,” I told her.
She shook her head. “No, you’re not,” she said.
“Yes, I am,” I told her, drawing closer.
“No, you’re not!” she screamed, then grabbed her doll and ran back to the house.
“Wait!” I shouted after her. She didn’t turn around. I began to sob.
“Semantha,” I heard. I felt myself being shaken. “Semantha.”
I opened my eyes and turned to see Ethan leaning over me.
“What?”
“I just got into bed and heard you crying.” He touched my cheek. “Tears. You were really crying,” he said. “Why?”
For a moment, I was very confused. What time was it? How long had I been sleeping? It took me another moment to realize we were home and not still in Monaco.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Bad dream, maybe.”
“Oh. Do you remember it?”
“No.”
“That’s good. Who wants to remember bad dreams?” He kissed my cheek. “You’re just overtired. Me, too. Good night,” he said, and turned away.
For a while, I just lay there looking up at the darkness.
“You’ve got to go get her and bring her home,” Cassie whispered, “before it’s too late.”
I closed my eyes again. By the time I woke up, Ethan was long gone. I had slept so deeply I had not heard him get up and get dressed, and he hadn’t attempted to wake me. It had not been a restful sleep for me. I wasn’t rested, but I rose, showered, and dressed and went down to get some breakfast.
No matter how I tried to distract myself, I couldn’t get my dream out of my mind. I could feel Cassie hovering over me, sticking close to me, following me everywhere I went. I went all over the house, then outside for a long walk, and then back up to our bedroom. She even followed me into the bathroom. Her voice was echoing. I put my hands over my ears.
“Christmas trees!” she cried. “She has Heaven-stone blood, and she’ll never know it.”
By early afternoon, I felt as if I would go wild and run through the house screaming, which would surely frighten the De Stagen sisters to death, as well as Gerad. Ethan called to see how I was doing, but I didn’t speak to him. I let the answering machine pick up. He said he would call again later. Finally, feeling as if I had ants crawling up and down inside my stomach, I rushed out of the house, got into my car, and drove to the Normans’ ranch.
I parked on the road just a little ways down from their driveway and got out. Walking toward the house made me feel I had entered my dream. I half expected to see my daughter playing outside with her doll in that sandbox. At first, I saw no one, and then off to the right, I saw Royce Norman returning from one of the horse corrals. My daughter held her hand and walked beside her, and in her arms she carried a doll similar to the one that had been in the dream.
