Chapter 2
"After the wedding," Lorna said, arms crossed, voice flat and utterly unbothered, "dump the kid at the orphanage. Maid too."
I've turned that sentence over in my mind more times than I can count in the weeks since. Not the cruelty of it alone, though that was staggering on its own — but the calm. She said it the way you'd finalize a catering order, a decision she'd clearly already made and was simply informing me of, now that circumstances had forced the timeline forward.
I understood, in the silence that followed, that this wasn't a moment of anger speaking out of turn. This was a plan, stated out loud for the first time only because Estelle had apparently broken something — a dish, it turned out later, knocked from a shelf by accident while reaching for a snack Lorna had told her she wasn't allowed to have without asking — and Lorna's response to a six-year-old's accident had been severe enough that Lenette had physically stepped between them.
May you like
I crossed the room before I'd fully decided what I was going to do when I got there. I took Lorna by the wrist, firm enough that she had to catch her balance against the wall behind her, and pulled her back a step, putting distance between her and my daughter that I intended to be permanent.
"There will be no wedding," I said.
