“You have a lot of nerve, accusing me of such horrible things,” she finally says, her voice shaky.
“I’m only repeating what Sylvie has told me.” Spencer’s voice is calm, which I’m sure frustrates my mother.
“She’s a liar.” The venom in her words is startling. “She’s always lied. Exaggerated the stories to make me look bad. Do you really think I want to kill her? I love her.”
“You have a very odd way of showing your love. You always have.”
“You don’t know me. Or Sylvie. What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to marry her,” Spencer says. “And once she officially becomes mine, I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you away from her for the rest of your life.”
“She won’t marry you.”
“My ring is on her finger. It’s happening.”
“Sylvie. Sylvie, please listen to me. Don’t marry this boy. He’ll just drag you down into his sordid world and your reputation will be forever tarnished. Do you want that to happen to you? As you get older, society is all you’ll have. Your husband will leave you and your children will abandon you and you’ll be all alone. You’re just like me, darling. Just like me. That’s why we need each other.”
“I’m nothing like you,” I tell her, my voice stronger. I cling to Spencer’s arm, knowing he’s got me. He’s protecting me from her, and that’s the only thing making me feel brave enough to say this. “I will never be anything like you. You’re a horrible person who hurts people to gain the attention of others.”
Her expression shifts, her eyes narrowing. Lips forming into a thin line. Her cheeks turn red, the flush spreading downward, to her neck. Her chest.
She’s furious.
“You’re such an idiot,” she spits out. “An ungrateful, selfish brat. Always trying to make it about you, when it had nothing to do with you. Nothing!”
Without warning, she comes rushing forward, sidestepping to the right at the last second, headed straight for me. Spencer shoves me backward, and I trip over my own feet, almost falling. With his other hand, he stops my mother from getting any closer to me, bracing it against her shoulder.
“Let go of me!” she shrieks, struggling against Spencer’s grip. Somehow, she gets away from him, her hands up, fingers curled into claws when she lunges toward me. “Come here!”
“No!” I scream.
Spencer is between us in an instant, his arms straight out, hands splayed when they make contact with my mother’s chest. He shoves with all his might, sending her toppling backward. She stretches her hands to her side as if to brace herself, her mouth open, eyes wide with shock as she pinwheels in the air, her feet slipping from beneath her.
Just before she goes tumbling down the marble staircase.
I’m screaming. It’s like I can’t stop. Mother rolls down the stairs, landing at the bottom at an awkward angle, her legs going one way, her torso going another. Her eyes are still wide, her mouth hanging open as a pool of crimson blooms beneath her head.
“Fuck,” Spencer mutters, running down the stairs and kneeling beside her. He touches her neck with two fingers, then withdraws them, glancing up at me. “There’s no pulse.”
For a moment, I’m frozen. Scared. I can’t breathe.
And then relief trickles through me, flowing through my blood, the same two words on repeat in my mind.
I’m free.
“Is there any staff here?”
I take in the position of her body, how her knee is bent backward beneath her. There’s so much blood. It keeps growing beneath her, spreading across the last step and onto the floor.
“Sylvie!” Spencer snaps, when I still haven’t answered him, startling me. “Is there any staff here?”
“No.” I shake my head. “She sent them all home.”
“We need to call the cops.”
“O-okay.” I nod, wrapping my arms around myself.
“We need to get our stories straight first.”