13. Alison #4
“You shouldn’t have had to hide a baby from your own mother.”
“I wasn’t hiding it from you.”
“You were hiding it in this house.”
That shuts me up. Because she’s right.
Mom looks down between us. Her hand lifts. Stops. “Can I?”
My throat closes. I nod. Her palm settles over the small curve beneath my sweater. For the first time, someone in this house touches my stomach and I don’t feel like I need to protect it.
Mom starts crying again. “My grandbaby.”
I cover her hand with mine. “Yeah.”
Her thumb moves once. Then fear crashes back into her face. “You have to leave. Ally, you have to get out of this house.”
“We’re working on it.”
“How soon?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“Mom—”
“If your father finds out—” The certainty in her voice scares me. Her eyes drop to my stomach. “And Victor can never know.”
“I know.”
“No.” Her fingers tighten around mine. “You don’t understand. This changes the agreement. Everything your father has planned. Everything Victor expects.”
“What does he expect?” She looks away. “Mom.”
“Not now.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because there are things I can’t explain standing in this kitchen.”
Her eyes snap back to mine. “You take Tobias.”
“We take Tobias.”
“And you go.”
“We go.”
“Ally.”
“All three of us.”
Her face crumples. “You have a child to protect now.”
“And you’re my mother.”
“That’s why I’m telling you to leave me.”
“And I’m telling you I’m not.”
She goes quiet. I look at her bruised wrist. Her cheek. The shoulder she let me photograph. Then at my own arms.
“I understand now.” Her lips tremble. “I didn’t before. I thought you could leave and didn’t.”
“Ally—”
“I thought you stayed because some part of you still wanted him.”
A tear slips down her cheek. “I am so sorry.”
“No.”
“I should have—”
“Don’t ever apologize to me for surviving him.” Her eyes open. “He did this to you before he ever did it to me.”
She breaks. I catch her. “I was supposed to be your mother.”
“You are my mother.”
“I let him turn you into this quiet little—”
“No. He did.” She cries against me. “He built this, Mom. Not you.”
All the cops. The judges. The lawyers. The money. The families. The agreements. The threats. All of it. The machine we’ve been raised inside without ever being allowed to see the gears.
“He made sure none of us thought there was anywhere to go.”
“I should’ve found somewhere.”
“We’re finding it now.”
She pulls back. “You take Tobias.”
“I will.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“And the baby.”
My hand covers my stomach. “Always.”
“No matter what happens.”
I know what she’s trying to make me promise. I shake my head. “No.”
“Ally.”
“No. No matter what happens. You’re coming too.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“You may have to.”
“I won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
Her eyes fill. I take both her hands. “Tobias comes.” She nods. “The baby comes.” Another nod. “And you come.” She starts shaking her head. I tighten my grip. “All three.” Her mouth trembles. “All three of us get out.”
For a long time, she doesn’t say anything. Then she whispers, “Okay.”
I don’t know if she believes it and then I remember. “Wait.”
I leave her in the kitchen and run upstairs. The ultrasound pictures are exactly where I hid them.
When I come back down, Mom is still standing beside the island. I hold them out.
She stares then takes them with shaking hands. “Oh.” Her thumb traces the white edge. “This is the baby?” Her face crumples again. “My grandbaby.”
“I heard the heartbeat.”
Mom’s eyes snap to mine. “You did?”
“Yeah.”
“Was Ryan there?” I nod. “And Tobias.”
Her eyebrows lift. “He knows?”
“Yeah.”
“And he hasn’t said a word?”
Despite everything, I smile. “He keeps his secrets.”
Mom lets out a watery laugh. “That he does.”
“He thinks the heartbeat sounds like a horse.”
She looks down at the picture. Then laughs again. A real one this time. Small. Broken around the edges. But real.
For maybe thirty seconds, we’re just standing in a kitchen looking at an ultrasound picture. A mother. A daughter. A baby.
Then Mom looks at my bruised face. And the moment is gone. She carefully hands the pictures back. “Hide those.”
“I will.”
“And Ally?”
“Yeah?”
“Get out.”
I take the pictures. “We are.” She closes her eyes. I kiss her cheek. “All three.”
This time, after a second, she whispers it back. “All three.”
Then I go back upstairs, sit beside Tobias where he’s sleeping, and open my messages.
Things changed tonight. We need to talk.
Ryan: What happened?
I look at Tobias sleeping beside me.
I can’t explain everything right now.
Ryan: Are you safe?
I stare at that question for a long time.
For tonight.
Ryan: Ally.
My mom knows more than we thought.
I hesitate. Then type the part I still can’t stop thinking about.
And I think Dad answers to Victor.
Ryan: Why?
Victor called in the middle of something. Dad left immediately to deal with what happened at school.
Ryan: What happened before Victor called?
My eyes fall to the bruises forming around my arms. Of course he noticed what I didn’t say.
That’s the part we need to talk about.