The sound of skin on skin stopped her accusations. I watched it happen, unable to stop it, as my hand connected with her face. Her head whipped back in a seamless response as her palm covered the mark on her cheek.
‘You know nothing about grief,’ I said, emotions flooding me. ‘You couldn’t possibly understand loss, because you love nothing but yourself.’ The tears were coming, and I wouldn’t hold them back. She needed to see my sorrow in the flesh. ‘When I held my lifeless child in my arms, all of my heart and all of my joy bled out of me. My hands will forever be painted red with her death, because I can’t forgive myself. I don’t want to forgive myself. Because love requires everything. Why do you think I took the blame instead of letting it fall on Jackson? I lied to everyone – the police, Ben, even Lane – about what happened, out of love for my son. I told everyone it was on my watch that she wandered to the pool, fell in, and drowned. I wanted to protect everyone else more than I wanted to heal myself. Love is sacrifice, Candace. What have you ever sacrificed for another person? Nothing!’
‘You don’t know me.’ Her arm – the one scarred by Noah – dropped to her side, and her eyes burned like hot coals. ‘Oh, I’ve had loss. More loss than you could imagine. So don’t claim the victim card all for yourself. Ben was grieving too, and you pushed him away because you didn’t want to share your misery. Well, congratulations, Harper, now you own it all. You lost your child and your husband … and this clingy thing you have going on with Lane? Well, that will be gone next.’
‘No,’ I shook my head, ‘Lane would never abandon me. Family sticks together.’
‘You have no idea what that man is willing to do for me. Or what I’m willing to do for him.’
‘You’re fighting for people who don’t want you, Candace.’
As soon as the words left my mouth I saw the rage bubble up inside her. I had gone too far. Her gaze darted from the floor, to the door, to the wall, while I tried to keep up with it. She lunged toward her dresser, the motion so swift that my brain hung back. A heartbeat later she held the pair of scissors in her fist, aiming the point at me as she leapt forward. Covering my head with my arms, I ducked and shuffled back, but she bulldozed forward, her body slamming into mine. I screamed as the tip of the scissors bit into my stomach. I cradled the gushing open wound, trying to cup the blood back inside. When I looked up at her, she held the scissors above her head, aiming them at my face.
‘Mommy!’ The voice barely cut through the white noise buzzing in my ears. But it was loud enough to hold Candace back for the second I needed to scramble toward the bed. Behind Candace, Jackson pummeled her with his fists, but it was like a fly buzzing around her face. A mere annoyance, not a threat.
Jackson rammed through her legs toward me, and protectively hugged me. His short arms cradled halfway around my body, as he screamed, ‘Mommy! Don’t hurt my mommy!’ My baby boy risked his life for mine. Everything I thought I’d lost – my heart, my soul – inflated fully, the love bigger than ever before. Pulling him under me, I kissed him and held him and wept into his hair as I shielded him from Candace and all the evils in the world. I would never let go again.
I crouched over Jackson in the corner as Candace threw down another blow that grazed my back. I cried out at the surge of pain coursing through my body, begging her to stop. Her arm swung down again, the point hitting my forearm as I blocked her. Then, again, her arms rose, both hands clutching the hilt, this time aiming for my shoulder where I hunched over Jackson possessively. I couldn’t watch her stab me to death, so I tucked into a ball with my son in the center, waiting and bawling and calling for help.
Waiting for the next strike … but it didn’t come. I dared a glance at her. With the scissors still in midair, a memory seemed to flash across her face. Tears filled her eyes, the blue irises becoming unnaturally bluer, then dribbled down her cheeks as some distant pain stayed her hand. But only for a moment. She blinked back to now, her arms trembled, and I saw the hatred return.
When I should have felt the slice of metal into my flesh, I instead was hit with her full weight as she dropped onto me. I yelped and shoved her aside, crawling across the floor with Jackson scuttling ahead of me, only to bump into a pair of legs. My view traveled upward to find Lane standing above me holding the – now bloody – turquoise and gold urn containing Kira’s ashes.
Chapter 35
Candace
There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.
‘You have no idea what that man is willing to do for me. Or what I’m willing to do for him.’ I meant every word of it.
The incredulity on Harper’s face made me want to smack it right off. She had watched my life go up in flames while she held the matches. Not anymore. It was my turn to win. I had proven that I could take whatever
