The Sinner - Molly O'Keefe Page 0,67

what she’s done her whole life. She wasn’t about to change.”

“You didn’t give me a chance,” Vanessa said.

“I did what I thought was best,” Margot said. “And I’d do it again.”

I felt the walls pressing in on me. A thousand pounds on my head, stopping my heart. It was impossible to think.

Everyone had betrayed me. Everyone.

“Now,” Vanessa said, “let’s ask her about where she’s hidden the gems.”

“Do you know anything about the gems?” I asked, so weary, so tired I could barely stand.

“Are you honestly going to believe her?” Margot asked.

“And you’re so trustworthy?” I asked. Margot swallowed, shrinking a little and looking more and more her age.

“I’m so sorry, Savannah,” Margot whispered. “I have always done what I thought was best.”

“So, no gems?” I asked and Margot shook her head.

“She’s lying!” Vanessa cried. “Again! Savannah, listen to me, baby—”

“Matt,” I whispered, “please get my…mother out of here.”

“Out of your house?” he asked. “She broke in looking for those gems. She knows something about the night my father—”

He stopped, blinked. And he grew, right in front of me. Changed. His shoulders suddenly seemed wider, his back straighter and his love for me practically blazed out of his eyes.

I realized what he was doing—curbing his want, his desire for information. He was putting himself on hold, this single-minded man who put his vision aside for no one.

He was putting it aside for me.

Don’t. I can’t repay that. I can’t match that sacrifice. I have nothing to give you.

“You want her gone, she’s gone,” he said.

“Thank you,” I whispered, unable to turn down what he offered so easily when I knew I should.

“Those gems are here, Savannah!” Vanessa yelled as Matt led her out to the front lawn where the cops would soon arrive. “Margot knows something!”

Margot spread her fingers across her belly as if she had a pain. “That woman would have ruined your life.”

“And how would that be any different than it is now.”

“I love you,” Margot said. “Every day I’ve loved you more. You’re the daughter—” Margot stopped, tears flooding her eyes, her voice thick. “You’re my daughter.”

I thought about Matt and his father—those weeks of macaroni and cheese and the forgiveness that Matt gave him. Maybe tomorrow I’d find that forgiveness, somewhere. Somehow. But right now I was empty. Nothing but echoes and hurt.

I stepped past Margot without a word and climbed up the stairs to my daughter’s room and pressed my hand to the door as if I could feel Katie through the wood. And I could. In my mind I could feel my daughter anywhere.

There was no doubt in my mind that my own mother had never felt that connection. Not once.

But Margot did. I knew, because I felt the same connection to Margot.

The door slid open soundlessly and I crept in, easing myself into Katie’s bed, curling my body around Katie’s body, my own tiny heart.

MATT

I gave my statement to the cops and watched them put Vanessa, snarling like a rabid dog, into the back of a cruiser.

“Thanks, Matt,” Juliette said, stepping beside me so the car could leave. “Tell Savannah I’ll be by tomorrow morning.”

I waited for her to drive away before running into the house, desperate to stop what I saw in Savannah’s eyes.

It was like watching a person bleeding out right in front of me and not being able to stop it. Every second I spent away from her I knew I was losing her.

I needed to show her that no matter where I went—St. Louis, the North Pole, the moon, I was here for her. My heart was right beside hers. If she’d let me in.

My compass told me she was upstairs. Instead of going to her room I went to Katie’s—somehow sensing her need to be close to her baby.

I knocked softly on the door and after a few moments it cracked open, revealing Savannah and her haunted empty eyes.

Speechless in front of all that pain, I reached for her fingers where they curled against the door. One touch and she shifted away.

No touching. Got it.

“Are you okay?” I asked, hating the stupidity of that question but not knowing where else to start.

She blinked and licked her lips. “Sure,” she lied.

“Savannah. You don’t have to pretend—”

“I’m tired,” she whispered and glanced behind her. “And I don’t want to wake up Katie.”

I waited until she shut the door in my face before retreating to the sleeping porch.

18

MATT

“It’s stunning,” Margot said the next afternoon, her face radiant with a bright smile. I