Razorblade Kisses(97)

“You know, I had all these things planned to tell you about all the destruction you’ve caused my family, but it’s pretty fucking clear you don’t care.” Emery wiped a stray hair off her face.

He must’ve seen something in her eyes because he turned from condescending to emotional and started sobbing. “I’m so sorry. I’m sick. I told your mother I needed therapy. I tried not to touch her.”

He’d told her mom! She felt like she’d been slapped in the face. Her mother had known all along.

Her armor was filling with rust and she couldn’t move.

Her mother had let this man touch both of her girls. Her insides began disintegrating, pain permeating every cell of her body.

“Emery,” she heard from behind her.

Emery’s head snapped around and stared into her mother’s eyes.

“You can leave now,” her mother said, nodding at Phil. “I’m going to finish what you started, dear.”

“Fuck you!” Emery cried. “You let this happen! You knew what he was doing?” Her voice was an octave higher and she was shaking. She thought she was starting to go into shock.

“No. He’s lying. I knew something terrible had happened when you left, and I kept trying to find you so that I could fix it. Ashley wasn’t as strong as you; she couldn’t survive what he did to her. She left a note that explained everything.” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. “Your sister was very descriptive in her last note to me. I know about the way he’d come in here, into my daughter’s room and violate her with his fingers, his penis.” She glowered at him. “You bastard.”

Emery dry heaved thinking about Ashley’s last days and what Phil had done to her sister—exactly what’d he’d done to her. She was mesmerized by her mother’s demeanor. She didn’t know this calm and collected woman, but then again, this woman didn’t know her either.

“Emery, head back down to Savannah. I’ll fix this.” Celeste didn’t turn her attention away from the man bleeding on Ashley’s bed.

“You…” Emery whispered. “You knew where I was.”

“Of course, dear. I almost found you in Nashville, but you were too quick.”

“How did you find me?”

Celeste waved her question off. “Doesn’t matter.”

Rachel was watching the entire scene from the door. Emery looked at her, for what, she didn’t know.

“Rachel, be a dear and take my only living daughter from this house and get as far from here as possible.”

“Don’t do this!” Emery pleaded suddenly. “Don’t take this away from me. I want to kill him. I need to kill him.”

“Emery, I know you think you need to do this, but let me do it. I’m almost positive this would crush you.”

“I’m already rubble,” Emery muttered.

“I don’t want this on your conscience for the rest of your life. I’ve set things up for you. I need you to be okay.” Celeste reached her hand out and grabbed Emery’s, giving it a squeeze. “I need to know that I did something right, that I saved one of you.”

Emery turned around and looked at her mother. “How can I trust you?”

“I suppose you can’t, dear.” Her mother’s eyes didn’t meet hers, but stayed trained on Phil, the man that she’d chosen to bring into the lives of her two little girls. “Can I use your gun? It can’t be tracked, can it?”

“Not to Emery,” Rachel piped up.

Emery fought with herself. She didn’t trust this woman who’d once kissed her cuts and scrapes and watched every gymnastics practice.

Seeing the indecision in Emery’s eyes, her mother turned slightly and looked her in the eyes. “I failed both of my daughters. I’m responsible for this. Let me do it,” she urged. “I need to do it.”

Taking the gun from Emery’s hands, she turned and shot Phil in the chest without any hesitation.

Emery blinked and stared at her mother. “Go, dear,” her mother said again, her voice just above a whisper. “This may be hard to believe, but I do love you.”

Emery looked at her sister’s pink comforter, then to Phil, and then to her mother. Time seemed to stand still before Rachel started pulling Emery out of the room. She wanted to say something, scream something, but her thoughts felt like molasses and her voice was stuck in her throat. Emery’s eyes were trained on the woman that had once made her pancakes, the woman who gave her life, and she wanted to thank her, to touch her…but then they were running down the stairs.

When they reached the kitchen, Emery took a deep breath. Rachel grabbed her iPhone out of the dock, the loud music giving way to a sickening silence, and opened the back door. The chimes signaled they were leaving, like it was a regular visit. As the door slammed, Emery saw a flash in her sister’s bedroom window and heard a gunshot. Then there was another shot and a sound that Emery would never forget. She doubled over. Emery couldn’t breathe, she just tried to put one foot in front of the other.