Every trace of kindness disappears from her expression as she recognizes Audrey.Hate twists her features.
“You filthy bitch.”
Audrey’s hand becomes an icicle in my grip.Shock roots me in place.
“Who let this whore into my room?Get her out before she kills someone else!”Daphne screams and throws the tissue box from her bedside table.
Audrey doesn’t dodge.The cardboard bounces off her thigh and skids across the floor.
Anger breaks my shackles.I step in front of her, shielding her with my body.
Daphne startles and looks at me for the first time.Her eyes widen.Tears stream down her face.
“Oh, Brennan, I’m so sorry!I tried so hard to give you a real baby sister, but that jealous little harlot ruined everything.Get away from her before she murders you, too.”
Audrey’s small, defeated voice from behind me breaks my heart.
“Mom, I didn’t—”
“Don’t call me that, home wrecker!I’m not your mom.I was never your mom.I hate you!Hate you!”
I grab Audrey by the shoulders and march her out of the room as her mother spews worse and worse vitriol at her.
When my baby doll’s knees give out before we reach the elevator, I scoop her up and carry her down the stairs, out through the lobby, and across the parking lot.She rests her head against my shoulder until I settle us both in the backseat of my car.
“Audrey, what happened?”
She reaches for the door handle.I capture her wrist and hold her in place with the slightest pressure.
“Let me go.Let me be the first to leave this time.”
Her voice sounds hollow.
“I’m never letting you go, even if youdidkill someone,” I say.
She swings cold, skeptical eyes at me.
“What if I killed your real baby sister?”
My heart thuds against my sternum as dread pulses through me.I don’t want to believe what both she and her mother have implied.
“You’re my only sister,” I say.
She shakes her head.
“I’m not.Three years after you left, your dad got my mom pregnant.I killed her the day we found out it was a girl.”
I pull her wrist into my lap and frame her face with my hands.
“You would’ve only been fifteen years old.How could you have killed an unborn baby?”
“I left them.”
The implications behind her words slice through me.All the times she cursed me for leaving her held a horrible hidden meaning.She was hating herself more than she hated me.
“Left them where?With whom?Why?How is it your fault when you were still just a kid?”
She shifts her gaze over my shoulder and shrugs.I curse and give her a gentle shake.
