Chapter 4
"But the doll has my mother's name on it..."
Before I could finish, my father clamped a hand over my mouth.
His face was livid. He didn't even glance at the doll.
"Caitlin," he growled, his voice shaking with rage, "you are a cruel, heartless woman.
"You couldn't have a son yourself, so you tried to make sure Lily couldn't have one either? How did I ever marry such a monster?"
He glared at me, muttering, "And you gave birth to this little demon!"
He snatched the urn from my hands and smashed it on the ground.
I screamed, but all I could do was watch as my mother's ashes scattered over the wilting roses. Without her to water them, they were dying, just like my parents' love.
"What bad luck," my father muttered, frowning at the broken box. "Who takes their role this seriously? Is she trying to curse herself?"
Lily let out another perfectly timed cry of pain. At some point, she had moved the doll so it was right beside me again.
"Mia," she sobbed, "I never did anything to you. It's one thing for you to hate me, but the baby in my belly is your little brother!"
My father immediately rushed to her side, cooing and comforting her.
"Don't worry. You're the most important thing in our family now. No one will hurt you or the baby."
At that, Lily finally smiled. She ground the last of my mother's urn into the dirt with her sharp heel and picked up the doll, whispering something to my father.
He hesitated, but one look at Lily's piteous face forced him to nod.
She took my hand and led me into the room.
I was still in a daze, my mind on my mother's scattered ashes.
A sharp pain in my palm snapped me back to reality.
My father and Lily were holding my hands, jabbing the steel pins from the doll into my skin.
"Let's see how long you can take this, Mia!" my father snarled, pushing the pins in deeper.
Lily was even crueler. She took a long pin and drove it under my fingernail. As I screamed in agony, she leaned in and whispered, "Your mother got what she deserved for being Peter's wife.
"And you're just as stupid. If you had just sided with me, I might have thrown you a scrap of food."
I couldn't take it anymore. I bit down on her ear hard.
She shrieked. It took all of my father's strength to pry my jaw open.
Her ear was a bloody mess. She looked like she was about to faint.
I watched, a strange satisfaction washing over me. But my father looked at me as if I were a monster.
"What did Caitlin turn you into?" he muttered in disbelief.
I looked at him coldly, pulling the pins from my hands one by one.
"Mommy only ever taught me to be good to my daddy.
"But you killed her. I don't want you as my daddy anymore.
"When my grandpa gets here, I'm going to watch you both get what you deserve."
My father stared at me for a moment, and I made the mistake of thinking he was afraid. But then his expression twisted into a smirk, and a laugh escaped his lips.
"Grandpa? Don't be ridiculous. Your mother was an orphan. She has no family.
"She was just a girl from a poor village. Who else did she have but me?"
His laughter died, and his eyes turned hard and menacing.
"I was just playing around. And she made up a lie like that just to spite me."
The look in his eyes sent a chill down my spine. I tried to back away, but he grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me back.
He tied me to a post in the corner and went to the storage room to come back with a baseball bat.
"Let's see how long your mother can stand to watch me beat you."
The bat slammed into my ribs. As the searing pain shot through me, I saw my mother's smiling face.
"Mommy," I whispered, "are you here to take me with you?"
Something warm and red dripped from the corner of my mouth.
My father hesitated, his hand reaching for me, but just then, a much larger hand knocked his aside.
I was swept into a warm embrace. A deep, authoritative voice thundered at my father.
"My daughter is dead. Are you going to kill her only child, too?"