“Absolutely not,” he said. “It wasn’t approved for human trials, and the experiments Peterson did don’t count. People died, Sabrina. Lots of people. At least a dozen. I don’t remember all the details, but it doesn’t matter. It’s too dangerous. I would lose my medical license and go to prison. Besides, it would be totally unethical for me to—”
“Oh, like you haven’t broken the rules before?” she said, wrapping her fingers around the urn and squeezing it so tightly that her hand shook. “Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t say no to me. I know what you did, and if you don’t cooperate with me, I’ll tell your wife everything. I’ll tell Nora you euthanized her mother.”
Lisa couldn’t believe her ears. It wasn’t true. Her grandmother had died from a heart attack. Her father had expressed regret about his inability to save her, but that was all. How could the woman even suggest such a thing? She felt her face burning with indignation and waited for her father to deny the accusation, but he didn’t.
“I couldn’t leave her like that,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been right. She was such a feisty little thing—bright and cheerful and funny. She was like the mother I never had. I was there when they took her off the ventilator. I hoped she would die right away, but she didn’t. The next time I saw her, she was flailing around in a pile of her own excrement with no conscious control over her body. It was hideous. There was nothing left—nothing that made her who she was. I knew she wouldn’t want to live that way.”
“So you took matters into your own hands,” said the woman. “Come on, Andrew. It’s been more than a month. Pull yourself together and stop being so pathetic. I’m sure you did the right thing. You don’t have to punish yourself for it—speaking of which, this whole house feels like a tomb. I noticed the flowers. They’re starting to rot.”
“Nora won’t throw them away,” he said. “She’s completely devastated. So are the girls. It breaks my heart to see how much I’ve hurt them, but I don’t know how to fix things. It’s getting so bad that I don’t even want to be around them anymore. I’ve been avoiding them ever since it happened, and I can’t afford to do anything else that might jeopardize my relationship with them.”
“Then help me,” she said. “Richard will tell you exactly what to do. I haven’t seen him for more than twenty years, but I’m sure he’s still alive. He’s too ornery to disappear without making a fuss. He knows I’m his ticket back into the family, and when he sees what he’s missing, he’ll do whatever he can to save me.”
Lisa’s father shrugged.
“Fine,” he said in the saddest voice Lisa had ever heard him use. “If that’s the price for your silence, I’ll pay it, but this isn’t going to have a happy ending. I’ve been doing this job for a long time, and I’ve never seen a miracle. You’re not going to be the exception. There’s no such thing as cheating death. I don’t know how familiar you are with the details of Peterson’s experiment, but if you’re not okay with drowning in your own blood, you might want to reconsider.”
She removed her hand from the urn.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “You’re a good friend, Andrew, and I’m sorry for getting you mixed up in this nasty business, but it’s not my fault. I’m just trying to survive. It’s a mother’s duty to be there for her children. We’ll be in touch.”
She left without another word. Lisa’s father remained where he was, staring at the floor with sightless eyes that glistened with tears. Lisa wanted to comfort him, but she was too horrified to approach him. She realized she would never be able to look at him the same way again. Everything was different now. He finally stumbled upstairs, clutching the bannister as if he feared losing his balance. It was another ten minutes before Lisa dared to move.
She straightened up slowly, but the tension in her body remained. So it was true. Her father was a murderer. How far would he go to conceal what he had done? No wonder he didn’t like it when she watered the flowers. They reminded him of her grandmother. She picked up the pitcher, but it slipped out of her hands and fell on the floor with a resounding crash. She didn’t bother to clean up the mess she had made. Her only thought was to get away from her father. Stepping over the shards of broken glass, she ran out of the house.
∞∞∞
Lisa didn’t stop running until she crossed the road and found herself on the beach. The sand stretched for miles in either direction, and the waves rushed toward her, glittering in the bright afternoon sun. Lisa turned around and gazed at the house. Darkness lurked behind its white walls. She crossed her arms to keep out the chill and headed down the beach. She needed to see Molly. Molly was the only person in the world who could make her feel better.
Lisa couldn’t remember a time in her life when Molly hadn’t been there. Her earliest recollections involved lazy summer evenings spent in the sprawling garden behind Molly’s house reading stories from an enormous book of fairy tales. Molly’s vague grasp on reality was comforting, and Lisa trusted her implicitly, even though she knew Molly was delusional. She had once heard her father remark that Molly spent too much time talking to plants and not enough time talking to
