Mom just grins. “Oh, how naive,” she chides. “We had to make it believable. After all, didn’t you wonder how I got to your place? Do you really think I could have made it there myself?”
I step in closer to Izzy, both of us gripping the girls as tight as we possibly can, terrified they might make a break for it and get themselves shot by the psychopath in the room. “What the fuck are you talking about?” Izzy demands. “You had him beat you on purpose?”
“Of course I did,” she says, as though it should have been obvious. “I have made it more than clear that my only goal was to maintain my marriage with Elias at all costs, and unfortunately, that cost is you, my dear. Elias and I struck a deal. I hand you over on a silver platter, and in return, I get to keep the life I have here. Nothing has to change. Oh, except for you, sweetheart,” she adds, her gaze settling on my face. “Things are about to change drastically for you. But you’re strong. I’m sure you will endure his . . . games for a year or two before you eventually take your own life. Though I’m sure I will come to visit every now and then. I could bring you new clothes. Maybe some pictures to decorate your cell. It doesn’t have to be all bad.”
I suck in a breath, horror blasting through my chest. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I demand as I try to piece the puzzle together. Putting the whole clothes-and-pictures-in-the-cell shit aside, there’s still so much to figure out. The weird pregnancy announcement, the odd admission of infidelity, then suddenly getting beaten and losing the baby, knowing how it would tear me to shreds. “The baby. Was it even real, or are you that messed up that you would fake a pregnancy just to fake a miscarriage?”
“Five points for Harper-Rayn. It seems you’re not as slow as I assumed,” she encourages. “However, you really must give me a little credit, honey. I’m not a monster, just . . . opportunistic. The pregnancy was very real. The morning sickness was brutal. But it’s all over now. Though I am sad. It would have been nice tostart fresh with a new daughter who’s not so full of hate. I think it was your childhood, and that’s on me. I should have been better. I should have provided a more stable home like this, and perhaps you would have been more grounded and grateful for the life I was able to give you.”
She’s seriously fucked in the head. But if she thinks that I’m about to willingly hand myself over for her sick deal with her husband, she’s about to be very disappointed.
“You’re sick, Mother. Knight has been called. He’ll be here soon, and you will be arrested for child endangerment and kidnapping. You’re going away, Mom, so this cushy lifestyle you’ve given everything away to maintain with a man who beat you without question, it was all for nothing. There is a bright side, though. Perhaps you might get the help you need while behind bars. As for me, I’m leaving with the girls. We have a movie to watch.”
Grabbing the girls’ arms, I turn and make my way out of the room, keeping my body in front of the girls and my eye trained on my mother.
“NO!” she screams, her eyes widening in alarm as though seeing everything she’s shamefully worked for slipping right out of her grasp. “YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE! I’ve sacrificed everything for you, and now it’s time you pay your dues.”
“Disrespectfully, Mother, you can get fucked.”
I keep going, needing to get the girls out of here and make a break for it, when something flashes in my mother’s eyes, a desperation that makes my stomach clench. I shake my head, horror ripping through me, and without a second of hesitation, I shove the girls as hard as I can, sending them sprawling to the ground. Izzy throws herself toward them in the same instant that the gun rings out.
BANG! BANG!
Screams rip through the air, and I frantically search the girls for blood, my whole body shaking with terror when I see Izzy at my feet, clutching her chest.
“Harper,” she breathes as blood begins seeping through her fingers, staining the front of her unicorn pajamas.
“No,” I gasp, immediately dropping to my knees, my hands pressing over her chest, and I watch the blood flood over my fingers in shock. “NO! No, no, no. Hold on, Izzy. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.”
“Harp . . . Harper,” she pants, her breath becoming shallower, losing too much blood too fast.
My head snaps up, gaping at my mother in shock. “What have you done?”
“I . . . I . . . I didn’t mean to,” Mom says, horrified. “I just meant to scare you. You were going to leave, and I . . . It just happened. I didn’t think . . .”
Tears streak down my face as the twins see the blood pooling beneath Izzy’s body and howl with fear. They move into me, trembling and crying, needing comfort. They need me to tell them that everything is going to be alright, but I can’t. I can’t be what they need right now.
Izzy’s eyes begin to soften, tears staining her cheeks and falling into her hair. “I don’t want to die,” she tells me, her voice weak as agony tears through my chest. “I’m not ready to die.”
“You’re not dying, Iz. You’re going to be okay. Knight is on the way. He’s going to make everything okay.”
“Can you tell my mom that—”
“No,” I tell her. “You’re not saying goodbye. We’re going to get through this. We’re going to be okay.”
The girls are wailing in my ears, not understanding what’s going on, when a shadow casts over me, and my head snaps up, realizing Mom is hovering over us. She somehow made it acrossthe room without me noticing. Then, before I can even tell her to get away, she grabs both of the girls, pulling them away.
“NO,” I scream at her, my throat hurting with the raw terror. “GET YOUR HANDS OFF THEM. YOU CAN’T HAVE THEM.”
Mom keeps going, dragging them away from me as they kick and scream, but with my hands braced against Izzy’s chest, the only thing keeping her alive, I have no choice but to stay on my knees as the tears whip down my cheeks. “I’LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS,” I scream at my mother, watching with a profound helplessness as she disappears around the corner, taking them out of my sight for the second time tonight. “I’LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU.”
A soft, fluttering touch brushes over my hand, and I glance down at my best friend, her bloodied hand resting over mine. “I’m sorry,” she whispers as the color steadily drains from her skin. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” I sob, my whole world burning to ashes around me. “Don’t go. Please, don’t—”
“Well, well. Mae delivered after all.”
My head snaps up, but before the scream can even tear out of my chest, Elias grabs me, yanking me away from Izzy. “NO!” I roar, frantically clawing at his grip. Kicking. Screaming. Begging. But as he clamps his arm tight around my body, I’m left defenseless, and I can only stare back at Izzy, the last of her lifeblood spilling onto the Italian stone flooring as Elias drags me away.
