“I wasn’t confused about who stuck that butcher knife into my body fifteen fucking times, Mom!” Cain said coldly. “Just like Hailey wasn’t confused about who she was trying to hide from in that bathroom or whose eyes were the last ones Daniel and Justin saw as they begged for their lives or who little Amanda was looking up at just before a fucking knife went clean through her body, the mattress and the bottom of her fucking crib!”
“No,” his mother began to shake her head. I was surprised when Cain ignored his father and stepped forward enough to grab his mother by the arms.
“It was him, Mom!” he whispered, his voice heavy with sorrow. “You know it! I know you do!”
She shook her head violently, but I didn’t miss the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“That’s how he loves you,” Cain ground out. “By killing your kids! That’s what he called them, too, did you know that?” Cain bit out. “Yours, not yours and his! He never wanted us. He told me that the day he buried that knife in my body over and over and over again. He said he gave you kids becauseyouwanted them and he’d do anything for you!” Cain released his mother and pushed her away from him. “If that’s love to you, you’re as sick as he is.”
Moira’s sobs increased as she buried her face in her hands.
“Moira, sweetheart, you know that’s not true. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you. I came back for you, didn’t I?” Jimmy kept his gun on Cain while he moved closer to his wife. “I was a free man, but I risked everything to come back to get you. So we can be together.”
Moira half-heartedly nodded as she wiped at her eyes. But she didn’t move forward towards her husband. “Maybe…maybe we can tell the judge how stressed you were back then…that you didn’t know what you were doing.”
I saw Cain stiffen at his mother’s words and I knew it was the first time she’d admitted the truth out loud.
Jimmy’s face fell and I saw his gun drop just a little. I knew Cain had a gun in his ankle holster, but I doubted he’d manage to reach it in time if Jimmy chose to fire.
“I know you didn’t mean to do it,” Moira quickly said and then she was striding up to Jimmy. She put her hands on his forearms as she looked at him imploringly. “I know you loved them, but you were under so much pressure with your work and me not being home as much.”
Jimmy nodded. “I just wanted to be with you.”
The despair in his voice sounded off and there was something about his words that weren’t quite right.
“I know,” Moira said softly. “It’s my fault,” she whispered. “I should have taken better care of you.”
I wanted to vomit as the woman twisted things so she could take the blame for the man’s cold-blooded actions that had stolen four lives and destroyed a fifth.
“I just wanted us to be together forever…like you promised.”
“Mom,” I heard Cain say even as his mother wrapped her arms around her husband and leaned her head against his chest.
“I’ll convince the judge, Jimmy. I’ll make him see and they’ll put you in the hospital for a little while. And I’ll come see you every day and then when you’re better, I’ll be waiting. Just like I’ve been waiting all these years.”
“I love you, Moira. Only you,” Jimmy whispered as he brought his arms in to wrap around his wife.
But I knew even before Cain shouted a strangled, “No!” that he wasn’t going to hug her.
The gunshot reverberated throughout the room and I watched in stunned silence as both Jimmy and Moira fell to the floor in a heap.
“No!” Cain cried out and then he was on his knees next to his mother. I reached his side just as he rolled her onto her back. The bullet had gone clean through her back and chest and I glanced up long enough to see it had pierced Jimmy’s chest as well.
But whereas Cain’s mother’s lifeless eyes were staring back at us, Jimmy’s were full of determination as he lifted the gun that was still in his hand to his head. I looked away as he pulled the trigger. I saw Cain stare in disbelief at the blood and brain matter splattered against the clean, white walls of his parents’ bedroom.
“Mom,” Cain called out as he cradled his mother’s body in his arms. I put my finger against her pulse, though I didn’t really need to.
“Ethan, please, you have to help her,” Cain whispered as his haunted eyes met mine.
“I’m sorry, Cain,” I said softly as I removed my finger from the woman’s neck. “It’s too late.”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated as I put my arm around his shoulder. He rocked her back and forth in his arms as he whispered something I couldn’t understand and then he was gingerly putting her body back on the floor.
“I’ll call 911,” I said as I reached into his pocket for his phone.
“No,” he said, closing his hand over mine. His voice sounded like he’d swallowed broken glass.
