“Look, how much longer until the baby’s due? November eighth, right? That’s only three weeks away. I think this birth needsto happennow, Max. It’s the final piece of our plan—we make it look like Savannah tried to take out both me and Jenna before going into labor at the cabin. Then she calls you to come get her and the baby, thinking the three of you will be a family. When you find out what she’s done to me and Jenna, you call the police, and Savannah goes to jail for a long time. Hopefully forever.”
“So, we take out Jenna … and make it look like it was Savannah?”
“Yes. And that she tried to take me out, too. Then she calls you to tell you she’s given birth. When you get to the cabin and see what she’s done, you’re horrified, and call the police. The baby will go home with you, its father, obviously—and Savannah goes to jail.”
“What if she fights back?”
“Then we take her out too! We say it was self-defense. Or that you were trying to save me.”
I heard footsteps that sounded like pacing, and Max muttering to himself. My eyes still felt like lead weights; I couldn’t open them. But perhaps that was better.Let them keep talking. If they think I’m still unconscious, they’ll leave me alone.
“Sweetheart, how are we supposed to make it look like she tried to take you out? I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I haven’t figured that part out yet … you may need to rough me up a little, sweetie. It’s okay.” I heard clothes rustling and the sounds of kissing. “You know I’m strong. I can take it.”
I heard a whoosh of air as one of them sighed. “I don’t like this, Madison. I wish we didn’t have to do all this, just to have a baby. We deserve to have a child. We’d be great parents! Much better than most of the crappy parents I see out there every day. I still don’t understand why we couldn’t have just adopted.”
“We’ve beenoverthis, Max. Adoption is not an option. Not if we want the money and the estate to be ours someday.”
Max gave a low, frustrated growl. “And I’m stillreallypissed the surrogacy agency rejected us.”
“I agree. I mean, what could we have said that turned them off? How dare they say they have ‘concerns’ about our ‘psychological profile’? Any child would be lucky to have us as parents.”
“I know, babe. I’m sorry.”
“This whole Jenna situation has just screwed everything up. I thought we were done with her!” Madison exhaled forcefully, and I heard footsteps as she paced. “I still don’t know what you evensawin her, Max. How could you ever be attracted to someone like her?”
“I’m sorry … I didn’t care who it was—I was just trying to distract myself from how much I missed you,” Max said.
Madison sighed. I heard a chair scrape against the floor. “If only it had worked out; if this bitch hadn’t lost the baby. Thenthatcould have been our baby. We’d already be parents by now. But then again, she looks nothing like me. It was definitely a better idea to look for someone who looks more like me. And now we’reso close. That baby is almost ours. And then we can finally be rid of both of them.”
“The one part that worries me, though—how do we makesureSavannah gets the blame for trying to take out you and Jenna?”
Madison sighed. “Maybe we need a witness. Someone that’s solidly on our side. Someone we can trust to stick to the story. Maybe Melanie? We can offer her more money. Hmm … she looked freaked out at the park, though. Maybe Jamie? I don’t know, let me think about it.”
I was finally able to lift my eyelids for a second. The overhead light in the room pierced my brain like a knife. I stifled a moan and managed to get both eyes to stay open.
I was lying on a bed in a bright, airy room. I could see trees in a dusky sky through a window on the wall to my left.Whose house is this? Where am I?I heard footsteps, and shut my eyes again.
A few minutes later I heard a doorbell.
“That must be Mom. Time to get going,” Madison said. “Can you carry Jenna to the car?”
“Sure.”
I heard Max enter the bedroom. I tried to stay calm, but fear made my body start breathing hard, all on its own. The footsteps stopped right by the bed. When I felt hands on me, I couldn’t help it—I screamed, kicking my feet and flailing my arms.
“No! Stop it! Leave me alone! No!”
My foot connected with Max’s face and I heard him yelp. I tried to swing my feet over the side of the bed to get up and make a run for it, but the motion sent a wave of intense dizziness through my brain, and I fell back onto the bed.
“Madison!” Max pinched his nose. A thick trickle of blood oozed between his fingers.
Suddenly, Madison was charging into the room, her features set in grim determination. She barreled toward me, holding a white cloth in her hand.
My vision filled with white, and I caught a whiff of that same acrid smell.
Then blackness took over.
