A Mother's Lie - Sarah Zettel Page 0,57

her. She was there on the sidewalk. Her head hurt. Her hands hurt. She saw Mom…she saw Mom…felt her eyes burn as she tried to black it all out.

But she did see. She saw Mom with a shotgun, blowing the pink-hands man away.

Her knees were buckling. She was sliding down the balcony door to sit on the floor. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t stop herself. “You didn’t know if anybody was coming to help you. You didn’t know, you couldn’t know, and you were out of your head, and he was going to kill you, and I mean, what the fuck were you supposed to do!”

Slowly, Mom slid down to sit next to her. “I could have just run out the door. He wouldn’t have known until he got out of the bathroom. But I didn’t. I went in there after him instead.”

Dana leaned her head against Mom’s shoulder. Mom rested her hand on Dana’s head and kissed her. They stayed like that for a while, until Dana started to feel—well, normal was the wrong word—but at least like she might eventually be able to get back to normal one day.

She sat up, and Mom let her.

“What are you going to do?”

Mom let out a long breath. “Well, first, I’m planning to go see Todd tonight, and I’m going to try to make him go away.”

Jesus. Dana pushed her hands through her hair. This should have been the big news. But now it seemed kind of…an anticlimax or something. “Are you going to, like, pay him off?”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that, but maybe. I’m going to at least get a better line on what he’s really after. But I don’t want you here on your own while I’m gone. Can you ask Chelsea if she can come over?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“But nobody else. I mean nobody.”

“Yeah, okay. But what about…Grandma?”

Mom pushed herself up off the floor. “Nothing’s changed there, Dana. I promise. But there’s the other piece of this.” She paused, searching for the right words, or any words. “I’m telling Kendi and Mr. Verdes that Doug isn’t allowed past the lobby anymore. I don’t know what’s going on with him.”

“Mom…” Dana tried to brace herself to get up off the floor. She felt like a baby just sitting here. But she couldn’t move yet.

“What?” Mom asked. She looked beyond exhausted. She looked like she’d been completely hollowed out.

Dana flashed on Jeannie lying on the gurney in the emergency room, looking more dead than alive. She remembered wondering if she would ever wake up.

“I’m worried,” Dana said. “I mean, Todd—what if he hurts you?”

“I’m not Jeannie, Dangerface. If he tries that on me, he’s going to find himself with more than he can handle.”

“I love you, Mom.”

And then Dana did stand up, and they did hug, just like they were supposed to. But Dana didn’t hear music rise inside her mind or see the camera pan or any of that. Instead, she saw her father in the hospital coffee shop with his desperate eyes and his whiny voice. Your mother has got to take responsibility for what she’s done before it hurts you!

But he didn’t give a shit about her. He just wanted to turn her against Mom, make her afraid. He wanted to use her. For what, even? It didn’t matter.

He did not get to do that, and she was going to make sure he never tried it again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

When Todd walked into Beth’s office, it was very clear he’d made an effort to live up to his surroundings. He was freshly shaved and had on a dry-cleaned, button-down shirt and linen slacks. He’d changed his boots for dress shoes.

Amanda Pace Martin clearly took good care of her man. She hadn’t seen her father so well dressed since she was a little girl, back when they still sometimes tried to make a play in Vegas or Atlantic City.

Beth had never told Dana about the high times when they were in the money, living in plush hotels. Or how she and Mom would go on shopping sprees that would make a Kardashian blush. Beth wanted to shield her from the glamour, because those luxury sprints always ended in another midnight drive, with her huddled in the back seat and her parents screaming at each other in the front. Then, in a few days, there’d be another call to Grammy and more tears for more money, and it would all begin again.

Todd strolled around the edges of her office,

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