Chapter 16
The reality of the flashing lights outside broke whatever delusion Laura was still clinging to. She crawled away from the workbench, her expensive clothes stained with grease and dirt, her perfectly styled hair falling in messy strands across her tear-streaked face.
She looked at the locked metal door, then turned her desperate, pleading eyes toward me.
"Daniel, please," Laura begged, her voice cracking, reaching a hand out toward us. "Please, you have to tell them I didn't know how bad it was. You have to tell them I was scared of him!"
I didn't say a word. I just looked at her with a mixture of pity and revulsion.
Realizing I wouldn't save her, Laura shifted her gaze to her daughter. "Emily, sweetie, please," she cried, crawling a few inches closer on the concrete. "I didn't want this for you. I'm so sorry. Please, baby, I'm still your mother. You can't let them send me to prison."
Emily stood tall behind me. The trembling that had wracked her body when I first arrived had completely vanished. The bruised, battered girl in the chair was gone, replaced by a young woman forged in the fire of ultimate betrayal.
Emily stepped out from behind my back, looking down at the woman who had birthed her. There was no anger in Emily's eyes, no hatred. There was only an absolute, chilling emptiness.
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"You stopped being my mother the moment you locked that door and handed him the belt," Emily said, her voice steady and final.
Laura let out a devastated wail, collapsing flat onto the concrete, burying her face in her hands. She finally understood that her daughter was gone forever, and she was entirely to blame.
