Isaiah was the one who’d phoned 911. He said, later, that as he’d recounted the details of the incident with Celeste at the strip club to Mia, he’d begun to see Mia’s point. It was suspicious for Celeste to disappear just days later. Only he knew he hadn’t hurt her. But he had confided to Celeste that Baxter might be leading a secret life. Then, after watching Mia climb into Baxter’s Range Rover and finding the trail of blood she’d left on the stairs, he’d gotten an awful feeling. When neither Baxter nor Mia picked up his calls, he’d tracked them on his computer using his family phone-finder app. Once Baxter’s signal began traveling off the main roads, Isaiah knew he had to act. Whatever his father was up to, it wasn’t getting Mia to the hospital where she clearly belonged. So he’d called the cops and guided them to the location of Baxter’s phone. Eventually, the signal failed, but not before the cops got close enough to spot the Range Rover parked off-road. If the police hadn’t arrived when they did, before Baxter regained consciousness, Mia might not be here today. Instead, she could well be the one incarcerated for giving in to her worst instincts and using that shovel to finish off Baxter, or else she might be lying in a secret grave beside her mother if Baxter had come to and attacked her. She owed Isaiah—but more importantly, she trusted him.
Alma clasped her hands together, resting them on the table, and Mia noticed marks where handcuffs had gouged her wrists. “First, I want to say, to Isaiah, that I love you with all my heart—such as it is. No matter what I’ve done, please don’t doubt that.”
“Just get on with it, Mother. You promised to tell Mia everything. She deserves that.”
Alma lifted a bottle of water to her lips, then screwed the cap on and set it down. It wobbled on the uneven table before coming to rest. “I was twenty-three and Celeste was six. Baxter and I were engaged, and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t head over heels for him like he was for me, but that only seemed to make him want me more. My life was a struggle—every single day was hard. And Baxter promised to take care of Celeste and me. He promised we’d never go without again. When I was growing up, my mother moved us between shelters and relatives’ couches. Once, we were on the street for weeks, and I slept in a toy wagon. I was determined my child, my lovely little Celeste, would never have to go through anything like that. When Baxter proposed, I wasn’t too keen on him, but eventually I realized he could be my way out.”
“That justifies nothing.” Isaiah looked away.
“I’m not trying to justify. I’m explaining. I want you to understand my side of it.”
“Just let her talk, Isaiah,” Mia said. The why haunted her. She wanted to know what had been in Alma’s mind.
He nodded.
Alma looked from one to the other and continued, “One night, shortly before our wedding date, Baxter came home past midnight and rushed right past me. He ran for the shower, and when I followed him, I found his clothes, bloody and torn, stuffed in the trash. I confronted him, and after a while, he confessed that he’d been seeing a woman named Emily. He said he tried to break it off with her, and she threatened to find me and tell me he’d been cheating. He said the thought of losing me made him go berserk. She ran outside. He chased her with a kitchen knife and finally caught her in the woods. After, he loaded her body up in the trunk of his car, drove further into the woods and buried her. I was horrified.”
“But you married him.” Isaiah covered his face.
“I didn’t dream he’d ever hurt me—or Celeste. Emotionally, Baxter was the needy one. I’d been counting on that marriage, and I didn’t think I should have to give up my ticket out of poverty just because he did something stupid. I was sick of working two jobs to keep a roof over Celeste’s head.” She gave Mia a pleading look. “Your poor mother was already in the ground when I found out. It wasn’t as if I could bring her back, and Baxter was so remorseful. He sobbed for an hour, begged me not to leave him. He swore he’d never look at another woman again, and I was naïve enough to believe him.”
“So by remorseful, you mean he regretted cheating on you,” Mia said.
“That’s right.” Alma took another sip of water, seemingly unaware of the inhumanity of that statement. “So I helped him cover up. I burned his clothes and helped him clean up the car. I scrubbed bloodstains out of the trunk, and he vacuumed it. That night, it poured rain so we didn’t worry about them finding blood or footprints in the wilderness. Then, the next day, we went down to the courthouse and got married. Baxter said no one could force spouses to testify against each other, so I would never have to lie to the police. I thought I’d never have a problem with him. And for a long time, I didn’t. He did everything I asked of him. Worked his tail off at the store, and even let me sign him up for a reality show for the publicity. He never wanted more than that one pawn shop, but he knew I hated being poor. If you think my wanting to be rich makes me shallow, so be it. I craved the things I saw in the movies and read about in books, and Baxter got them for me.”
“Oh my God.” Isaiah shook his head. “All the time you were playing the concerned wife, pretending to be worried about how hard he was driving himself…”
“I admit
