3: 3

3

"You couldn't raise your own daughter right, and you still don't know it in your own heart? You've got the nerve to come here and drag her off?"

"Your daughter's out chasing men every single day. Freddie had no choice. That's the only reason he raised a hand to her."

"That's right. Think how good Freddie's been to her, buying her clothes and bags every other day. When did she ever go without a thing to eat or wear? And she still carries on with a whole string of men, even tries to run off with one. That's not knowing when you're well off."

"Those last few times she ran, I'm the one who helped bring her back. Freddie knelt down at the edge of the village and begged her to come home, crying his eyes out."

Listening to all of it, I froze.

A mother knows her own daughter. There was no way she was anything like what came out of their mouths.

I turned to look at her. Her eyes were full of tears, and she didn't say one word to defend herself.

Like she'd lived through scenes like this too many times to count, and knew that saying more wouldn't change a thing.

The voices kept going. Frederick had put away the viciousness from before, and now his face was all forgiveness, all pallor.

"Everyone, don't say that. I was too rough this time, that's why she—"

One of the older women sighed like she couldn't knock any sense into him.

"Freddie, you're just too soft-hearted, that's your whole problem. Fine, she ran off before, but this time she hurt you this badly and you're still standing up for her."

The others chimed right in.

"You ask me, this woman just hasn't been beaten enough. Beat her into line and she'll behave. If she were my wife, I'd have broken her legs long ago. See if she'd run then."

"Isn't that the truth. Bad enough she never kept to a wife's place, and today she even pulls a knife. Freddie couldn't take it anymore, that's the only reason he went a little hard on her."

"Some people still have the gall to come here making a scene. If it weren't for the Delgados donating to the village every year, and Freddie putting in a good word for you, we'd have reported you to the school board long ago. Anyone who raises a loose daughter like that has no business being a teacher!"

Only in that moment did I finally understand.

Why the future me had said my daughter tried to run so many times and never got out.

Why she would never breathe a single word to me.

Why Frederick dared smash the car and drag her off so openly.

Because he'd already sealed off every road.

First he'd destroyed Carly's name across the whole village, wrapping every one of his cruelties in a coat of "he had no choice."

Then he'd used my job and my safety to threaten her.

Frederick held out his hand.

"Ma'am, today was my fault. I shouldn't have hit her."

"Let Carly come home with me. I promise I'll treat her right from now on."

He said it with real feeling, but I saw it plain as day. His eyes were full of triumph.

I took a deep breath.

If he wanted to use talk to crush me, then I could use that talk too.

"If my daughter is as worthless as everyone says, then I'll take her home and set her straight."

"The two of you aren't happy together. There's no sense tying yourselves to each other by force. So let's part on good terms."

Frederick's hand stopped.

The others, on the other hand, took my side.

"That's fair enough. A good man like Freddie, why hang himself on one tree?"

"A used-up thing like her is just an eyesore anyway. Freddie, you're still young, no worry about finding someone better."

"Should've divorced her long ago. Freddie, don't waste your life on her—"

"No!"

Frederick's voice shot up. He was about to say something when Rosemary Delgado stepped out.

"A divorce is fine. But you talk about parting on good terms, and that isn't something you can settle by just carting my daughter-in-law off like this."

"When our family married her in, we paid a bride price of a hundred and eighty thousand and bought a whole set of gold jewelry. And all these years my son has spent plenty on her too."

"The money, my family's willing to let go. But today she hurt my son, and that can't just be waved away."

I looked at her. She'd lived here a long time. There was no way she didn't know her son beat his wife. She'd probably been egging it on.

I was about to speak when she went on.

"A little squabbling between a husband and wife is perfectly normal. When we elders interfere too much, it only backfires. I'm not like you, ma'am, telling people to divorce at the drop of a hat."

"And I don't want to see my son wronged either. Since she hurt him, she can stay and care for him until he's healed. Let the young couple work things out a little more. Who knows, they fight at the head of the bed and make up at the foot of it."

It was a pretty speech.

It made her son's behavior sound reasonable, hinted that I was meddling in the younger ones' affairs, and showed off how magnanimous the Delgados were, all at once.

And her reason for keeping my daughter there sounded, somehow, fair and right.

4: 4

4

But only I knew that if my daughter stayed today, the next time I saw her, it would be her corpse.

The standoff broke when the officers showed up.

"Who called this in?"

"I did."

The words were barely out of my mouth before Frederick was already holding out a cigarette.

"Officers, I'm sorry. Dragging you all out here again."

If I'd held any hope in the police before, now all I wanted was for them to buy me a little more time.

I didn't know what had happened before, but after what I'd just seen, it was clear.

If calling the police did any good, my daughter wouldn't have ended up the way she did in the last life.

The me from the last life wouldn't have told me only Robin Gilbert could save her, either.

Just as I'd thought.

The officer in charge didn't take the cigarette, but his tone was plainly impatient.

"All right, all right. What are you two fighting about this time?"

Before Frederick could answer, the people around us were already chiming in over each other on his behalf.

"It's this woman. She's loose, tried to run off to chase after some other man. Freddie hit her, sure, but she hurt his arm too."

"Officer, you don't need to bother with this. A woman like that deserves a beating!"

"Right, and she's got the nerve to call the cops. Isn't that a waste of your time?"

The officer glanced at my daughter, frowned, and turned to Frederick.

"How many times do I have to say it? No matter how wrong she is, you don't hit people."

"If you can't make it work, get divorced. Was that written statement of yours for nothing?"

Then he turned to me.

"This is a domestic matter. All we can do is mediate. In a case like today's, where both parties are injured, if you insist on pursuing it, I'd suggest you get a forensic exam and file suit."

I refused to go to the Delgado house to talk it out and said I wanted to ride in the patrol car to the hospital to have the injuries documented.

The officer had barely nodded when the radio on his shoulder crackled.

"All units near Chandler Hollow, be advised. Wildfire at Highcrest Ridge. Emergency backup requested!"

First things first. As they left, one of them was still muttering.

"How is it that every time we come out here, there's always another call nearby that needs backup…"

My heart dropped hard. How could it be this convenient?

Before I could think it through, Rosemary shot the thugs a look.

"What are you standing around for? No divorce means she's still a Delgado. Get your brother's wife back in the house!"

The two big men crossed over in two strides, grabbed my daughter's arms, and started dragging her toward the door.

She struggled.

"I won't go. I'm not going back!"

"Don't touch my daughter!"

I threw myself in to pull that hand off her, and someone caught me by the back of the collar and flung me backward.

I hit the broken glass, and my palms were cut open with fresh gashes.

"Mom!"

Watching my daughter about to be dragged inside, I pushed up on my elbows and got off the ground.

"Frederick, you'd better let go of my daughter right now. If anything happens to her, your whole Delgado family is finished!"

He came over with a sneer and dropped his voice against my ear.

"Every school in this town was built with Delgado money. Every road in every village was paved by the Delgados. The whole town's economy runs on us."

"When I, Frederick Delgado, want someone, she should die at my side if she dies at all. A woman who had a child out of wedlock, what have you got to bring the Delgados down?"

He patted my cheek.

"Old thing, you'd better worry about yourself. Remember to lock your door tonight."

"Come on, see my dear mother-in-law home!"

His smug face in front of me, my daughter's hopeless cries in my ears.

I gripped the broken glass in my hand, ready to take him down with me.

Beams of harsh light poured over us, and more than a dozen cars stopped outside the Delgado house.

Dozens of bodyguards in black surrounded the place, and Robin Gilbert stepped out of the first Maybach, cold radiating off him.

"Let them go!"