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“What?” I yell.
The door opens and my grandfather is there, holding the phone. “I need you to come and talk to your mother,” he says.
I look over at Lila apologetically. Her cheeks are stained pink and she’s fumbling with her jeans, trying to get them buttoned.
“I’ll call her back.” I’m glaring at him, but he barely seems to notice.
“No,” he says. “You take this phone and you listen to what she has to say.”
“Grandad,” I say.
“Talk to your mother, Cassel.” His voice is harder than I’ve ever heard it.
“Fine!” I grab the phone and walk into the hall, ushering Grandad out with me.
“Congrats on getting out of jail, Mom,” I say.
“Cassel!” She sounds ecstatic to talk to me, like I’m the prince of some foreign country. “I’m sorry about not coming right home. I want to see my babies, but you don’t know what it’s like to live with a bunch of women for all these years and never have a moment alone. And none of my clothes fit. I lost so much weight from that awful food. I need a lot of new things.”
“Great,” I say. “So you’re at a hotel?”
“In New York. I know we have a lot to talk about, baby. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about being a worker sooner, but I knew people would try to take advantage of you. And look at what they did. Of course, if the judge had just listened to me and realized that a mother needs to be with her children, none of this would have happened. You boys needed me.”
“It happened before you went to jail,” I say.
“What?”
“Lila. They tried to get me to kill her before you went to jail. They locked her in a cage before you went to jail. It had nothing to do with you.”
She falters a little. “Oh, honey, I’m sure that’s not true. You’re just not remembering right.”
“Don’t—talk—to me—about—memories.” I practically spit out the words. Each one falls from my tongue like a drop of poison.
She goes silent, which is so unusual that I can’t remember it ever happening before. “Baby—,” she says finally.
“What’s this call about? What’s so important that Grandad made me talk to you right this second?”
“Oh, it’s nothing really. Your grandfather is just upset. You see, I got you a present. Something you always wanted. Oh, honey, you don’t understand how happy I am that you managed to get your brothers out of a bad situation. Your older brothers too—and you, the baby, taking care of them. You deserve something just for you.”
Cold dread uncoils in my stomach. “What?”
“Just a little—”
“What did you do?”
“Well, I went to see Zacharov yesterday. Did I ever tell you that we know each other? We do. Anyway, I ran into that adorable daughter of his on the way out. You always liked her, didn’t you?”
“No,” I say. I’m shaking my head.
“You didn’t like her? I thought—”
“No. No. Mom, please tell me that you didn’t touch her. Say you didn’t work her.”
She sounds uncertain, but also unrepentant, like she’s trying to cajole me into liking a sweater she bought on sale. “I thought you’d be happy. And she grew up very pretty, don’t you think? Not as handsome as you, of course, but prettier than that redhead you were spending all your time with.”
I step back against the wall, slamming my shoulders against it like I no longer remember how to move my legs. “Mom,” I moan.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
