Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Raised Me Ran
Marlene made it twenty yards.
A patrol officer caught her near the exit.
"Get off me!"
"Ma'am, stop resisting."
"You don't know what she's doing! My daughter is trying to destroy me!"
My daughter.
Standing beside the burned car, I realized I had never known my mother.
The police didn't arrest her for my father's death that day. The evidence was old. The photo proved the brake line had been damaged, but not who damaged it.
They did arrest her for assaulting an officer and violating the temporary protection order issued after Sofia's injuries.
"You think your father was a saint?"
I said nothing.
"He lied to you too."
The door slammed.
That night, Noah and I stayed at his sister's house.
Sofia slept in a portable crib beside our bed.
I didn't sleep at all.
At 1:30 a.m., I listened to the first cassette.
My father's voice came through in a whisper.
"Marlene doesn't know I'm recording this."
A chair scraped.
Then my mother's younger voice.
"You need to stop asking about Emily."
"I saw the bottle."
"You saw nothing."
"She was six months old."
"I was tired."
"You gave her enough to stop her breathing."
Silence.
Then Marlene said, very calmly, "If you tell anyone, they take Claire away from both of us."
The tape clicked off.
I pressed both hands over my mouth.
Noah sat beside me.
"There's more."
This time his voice was angry.
"I know about the trust."
Marlene laughed.
"You don't know anything."
"Claire's grandfather left that money for her."
"At thirty-five."
"Unless she has a child first."
Noah stared at me.
On the tape, my father continued.
"And if Claire dies before the transfer?"
Marlene answered without hesitation.
"It comes to me."
I looked toward the crib.
Sofia was ten months old.
My thirty-fifth birthday was six weeks away.
Then Noah whispered the part I hadn't wanted to say out loud.
"Your mother wasn't hurting Sofia because she hates babies."
May you like
He looked at me.
"She was trying to stop the trust from transferring."
