face with talk of divorce.” She started to shake with anger as if twenty years had not passed since that day.
“I would’ve lost everything, his hag of a mother had made me sign a prenup, and he even talked of my mental state, saying that he was going to take the child because I was not able to take care of her. As if I didn’t know that he was throwing me out like garbage for her. He’d used me like some kind of vessel to carry his child and then planned to discard me.”
“Don’t listen to the lies; lots of mothers don’t bond with their babies at first. There was nothing different about me. They just hated me, all of them.” Her eyes grew wild, and I didn’t bother telling her that the baby in question was five by this time. I’m not sure if PPD lasts that long, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.
“He thought he could get rid of me and take the child, but I fixed him, stupid man. Stupid, stupid man.” She walked around the room all but frothing at the mouth. Nothing else about her had changed, which was freaking me out. She still looked like a well-coiffed middle-aged woman of means in her three thousand dollar suit and heirloom jewelry. But her eyes told a whole new story.
I didn’t push her to tell me what I wanted to know but let her ramble on down memory lane. The security camera was, of course, both video and audio, so though I hadn’t lied when I told her that no one else was here with us, this is a one-party consent state, which means I can record her to my heart’s content and use her every word against her in a court of law.
She rambled on about her hate for her dead husband before turning her attention back to Giselle. “After the reading of the will, I knew what I had to do. He’d given her everything in life. No way was I going to allow that bitch to steal what’s mine after his death. But it was ironclad. There was no way for me to get my hands on any of it.”
“The fact that I signed a prenup worked against me. But as long as I still had control of her, I had control of her inheritance, at least for a time. I sent her away. I found the cheapest boarding school that was the farthest away. It was strict, so I knew that even if they found her, none of Sterling’s friends would be allowed to visit. I wanted her to suffer, to be alone like I was after she stole my husband’s love.”
“I spent as little on her as I possibly could. It gave me a thrill imagining all the other little girls in their finest while she wore the rags I found at second-hand stores, which is all she deserved. Do you know what happens to kids at boarding schools whose parents are neglectful? The staff catches on and treats them accordingly. Add the fact that I never visited, and you can imagine how those old nuns treated your precious wife.”
“Oh, but that’s not what you asked, is it? You wanted to know why she’s so afraid of me.” I forced myself to stay seated when she walked over and got in my face. I had to relax the tension from my fingers so that they didn’t reach for her scrawny neck, and once again, I didn’t let any of what I was feeling show on my face.
“She was there.” She whispered the words in my ear. I was afraid of that. Whenever I tried coming up with an answer for Giselle’s innate fear, this was the one thing I shied away from even though it was the only thing that made sense because it was too monstrous. “She was where? I don’t understand.” Like hell!
“Oh, don’t play coy with me. Haven’t you noticed what a sniveling coward she is? It’s what she deserves for preferring him to me, for stealing away his love and affection, the little bitch. I made her watch.” She laughed maniacally, and I had to fight the rise of bile in my gut. “You should’ve seen her little face when she ran to him, screaming.”
“It was then; it was then I told her what would happen to her if she ever told a soul. I needn’t have bothered because it seemed to splinter her