Chapter 103
Venetia
Thursday
Dazed, Venetia lifts her head from the airbag.
Someone’s just swerved in front of her car and she’s gone into the side of theirs.
What the…the baby is wailing from the back.
Still in the footwell, inside a bag of laundry.
She yanks open her door and stumbles into the dusk.
That’s when she recognizes the other car.
Felipe’s. Realization dawns. He did it on purpose.
Pulled in front of her to stop her. She truly didn’t know he had it in him.
She grabs the tire iron and the knife from the passenger seat then yanks open the back door and scoops the crying baby out of the holdall.
The car isn’t going anywhere. But Venetia is.
This does not end here.
Felipe is out of his car, stumbling toward her, hand on the back of his head.
There’s blood. His own fault. He’s calling her name.
And from behind, another faraway shout. Venetia swivels her head.
Susan O’Donnell in the distance, limping, shrieking.
For fuck’s sake. She turns back. Felipe is close now, blood on his hand as he reaches for her.
No, not for her, for the baby. That’s what he wants.
To save Susan O’Donnell’s baby. Rage fills her.
With the baby under her right arm, she raises the tire iron high.
Felipe doesn’t see it coming. She gets him across the temple and he drops like a stone.
She turns back. Susan is closer now. And other people.
People not far behind, running. Fuck. Fuck it.
Maybe this does end here. For Susan O’Donnell, for the baby.
She lays the baby on the ground and kneels beside it, sitting back on her heels. Its cry has reduced to a whimpering sob, exhausted now.
“It’s nearly over,” she whispers. “You’re too small to understand.
And it’s not your fault, it’s your mother’s fault.
” She pauses, staring at its confused face.
It really isn’t the baby’s fault. But then, it wasn’t Aimee’s either.
Resolute again. “You won’t suffer. It will be quick.
But Susan will suffer, and that’s what counts. This is for Aimee’s lost baby.”
She kneels upright now, stretching. The baby laid out in front of her, like a sacrifice on an altar.
She takes one look at Susan. Takes in the horror on her face as she limps toward them as fast as she can, but not fast enough.
There’s still enough space between them.
Venetia smiles at Susan. Raises the knife high over the baby.
Exalted. Adrenaline coursing through her.
For Susan and Susan’s baby, this ends here.