Chapter 4

Bella was frozen, stunned into silence, as if she couldn't process what had just happened.

She looked utterly devastated.

It was a far cry from the cold indifference she had shown when she had framed me in my last life.

When the victim was my husband, she actually seemed troubled.

I knelt in front of her, beaming at her with sweet concern.

"I got rid of the man who hurt you, Mom. Aren't you happy?"

She forced a weak, unconvincing smile as her real thoughts echoed in my head.

[Daisy, of course I'm happy. But Robert really didn't do it. Could you please explain that to them?]

I acted as if I hadn't heard a thing.

A moment ago, she was screaming that Robert was trying to kill me, and now she wanted me to clear his name?

It was absurd.

Suspicion suddenly rose in my mind. My lips curled into a thin, knowing smile. A marvelously terrible plan began to form in my mind.

"Don't worry, Mom," I said. "I'm taking you away from here. Just be calm."

I told Lucy to take Bella and wait for me downstairs. In the bedroom, I gathered our IDs and the deed to the house.

As I picked up the thick folder containing the deed, a small slip of paper fluttered to the floor.

Curious, I picked it up. The handwriting was Bella's.

[Do not trust my thoughts!]

I spun around, and my heart leaped into my throat. Bella was there, in the doorway, her eyes fixed on me with a terrifying intensity.

"Mom?" I gasped, stumbling back. "How did you get here?"

Lucy rushed in, flustered, to wheel Bella away.

I wiped a bead of cold sweat from my forehead.

"Didn't I tell you to take Mom downstairs?" I whispered harshly.

Lucy pouted, her lips jutting out in protest.

"I'm so sorry! I just had to use the bathroom, so I was gone for one minute! I don't know how she moved on her own!"

I checked Bella over again. Her body was as stiff and unresponsive as ever.

I honestly had no clue how she ended up at the doorway.

"Never mind," I muttered. "Let's just go."

Night had fully fallen by eight, blanketing everything in darkness.

I flagged down a taxi.

When I gave the driver the address, Lucy looked at me, confused.

"I thought we were going to Megan's house. Why are we going to a hotel?"

After what had happened, I couldn't shake the feeling that nowhere was safe.

My mother's thoughts had poisoned my trust in my husband and my best friend. The area around our local police station was crawling with the criminal element my mother had warned me about.

As a precaution, I booked a hotel in the opposite direction. We lived in Southside, but the hotel was in Northwood. Surely a killer wouldn't cross the entire city just for us.

With a police station practically next door, this place was far more secure than home.

"Megan's place is a mess," I said breezily. "It would be too crowded with the three of us. A hotel is just easier."

Lucy just nodded, accepting my explanation.

Bella, however, started whimpering again.

[Daisy, don't go to your friend! Megan is the other woman! She's the one your husband is cheating with! This is all her plan! Don't trust her!]

[If you go to her, she'll trap all three of us!]

[Run! Get out of this hotel!]

[You will regret this!]

I ignored her.

I used Lucy's ID and phone number to make the reservation. No one could possibly know where we were.

And the hotel had security guards and a 24-hour front desk, a hell of a lot better than the sixty-year-old doorman at our apartment building.

I just didn't understand. I was her daughter. Why was she so determined to see me dead?

And what did that note mean?

Was it possible she couldn't control what I was hearing?

I took a moment to observe Bella. Her body cowered, hands clutching herself as if for protection, but her eyes were glaring, filled with a resentful fire.

And then, in a flash of chilling clarity, I understood everything.