Existing (51 page)

“He’ll believe me over you any day. I’m his child
, Hallie. Parents always believe their children. You’re nothing but a name on a marriage certificate, and we all know how easy that is to remove.”

“Shut up!”
she screams.

“I’m going to tell
him that you murdered my mother,” I say, unable to stop because of the rage coursing through my veins. “I’m going to tell him everything. I swear to God, by the time I’ve finished, he wouldn’t touch you with someone else’s hand!”

Hallie goes berserk. She starts running around the room
, punching cabinets and smashing plates that are on the counter. She screams curses over and over again, and all I can do is stand and watch her.

She comes up to the side of me and grabs my head. She pulls it down until my ear is lev
el with her mouth. I try to pull it away. I don’t want her touching me.

“Your Father will always love me,” she hisses. “He was going to leave your fat, boring Mother for me anyway.”

I yank my head away from her hand. “My Mother was not fat or boring.”

Hallie laughs. “How the fuck would you know? You were only six months old when I pushed her off that cliff. You should have seen her face. She even begged me
, you know. She begged for me to leave Lance alone, to let him have a life with the two of you,” she spits. “She was pathetic until the very end. Nothing noble or proud about the way she begged me.”

I spin around quickly and stare at her menacing eyes. Despite the pain that I can feel resonating through my hand
, I smile at her.

“And what the fuck are you laughing at?”

I smile again. “I’ve got you.”

“What?”
she snaps.

“You’re done
, Hallie,” I say, charging into her. We collide heavily, and I push with every ounce of energy I have until her back is rammed against the fridge. I know I’ve lost it. I know I’ve let my anger get the better of me, but I don’t care. My good hand lashes out against her face and body. Anywhere that I can get, I hit with my good hand. We scramble around on the floor until she wiggles her way on top of me. I lift my hips to try and dislodge her enough so that I can flip her off, but she doesn’t budge. She’s heavier than I thought, and my injured ribs are struggling with the pressure.

I lift my head
when her hands stop thrashing just in time to see a chrome frying pan flying through the air toward my head. I try to duck, but I’m not quick enough. It smacks me straight across my face, making my brain shake and vibrate in my skull. My head hits the tiled floor at the same time that Hallie leans to the side and grabs something from off the floor.

I hear my ear-piercing scream bounce around the room and then something cold slices into my chest.

“You won’t say shit to anyone, Rose. Not now.” She leans in close to my face but everything has blurred. Her voice is muffled and I just about hear her say, “I fucking hate you.”

“I hate you more,” I huff. I can feel the warmth of the blood pooling underneath me. I know she’s stabbed me. I can feel my lungs struggling to suck in air. I can feel my heart struggling to beat and then I hear a
loud banging noise. It takes a few seconds for me to figure out that it’s coming from the window. Maybe it’s my Dad or Ava. Maybe it’s Cabe. As much as I don’t want any of them seeing me like this, I selfishly want to see one of their faces before my eyes close and never open again.

I use every last little bit of strength that I
have to push my eyelids open. They flicker up and down a few times, and then his face finally comes into focus. I know I’m going to die on the cold, tiled floor of the kitchen, but I smile anyway. I smile because the very last thing I see before my eyes close for the very last time is Cabe Evans. The boy who saved me. The boy who I would have gladly spent the rest of my life with.

She’s dead.

I pace up and down the kitchen, watching the blood seep from her body and over the floor. Hallie has lost it. She’s pulled the knife out of my daughter’s chest and flung it in the trash. She’s now standing in the middle of the puddle of blood and screaming at the top of her lungs. I can’t see Roisin’s chest moving. I lean down, watching her chest and listening at her mouth, but there are no breaths left. She’s killed her. She’s killed her, just like she killed me.

Cabe was banging o
n the window but now he’s gone. Where did he go? Why hasn’t he come in here to see if Roisin is alright?

I can’t even cry. That’s how pathetic my situation is. I can even begin to describe the pain in my chest, and even though I don’t have a heart
, something inside of me has broken. I don’t know what to do. I’m completely and utterly empty.

Where is Lance? Why did Roisin start this wh
en she knew her Father wasn’t home? She must have known it could have ended badly. Even if she didn’t think Hallie would kill her, she must have known that there was a possibility that Hallie would hurt her.

I
kneel in the blood and lean my head against her chest. I sob, even though there are no tears. I cry for her and the pain she’s gone through. Where is she now? Why can’t I see her if she’s dead? Has she already passed over to the other side? Of course she has, I think; her soul was pure. She would have gone straight away. I hate God at this moment. Not as much as I hate Hallie, but why has He let this happen? Why has He let her abuse continue and kept me here to watch it?

This is
all my fault. I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought I was helping, but it all got out of hand.

I hear the front door being shoved open and then Cabe and another boy crash into the foyer. Hallie steps out of the kitchen and blocks their path
.

“What
the fuck have you done?” Cabe growls.

He doesn’t wait for an answer and pushes past Hallie
, running into the kitchen. He skids over the floor where his feet slip and slide through Roisin’s blood, and even though he tries to grab onto the counter, he falls. His knees and hands splatter in the blood, and when he looks up and sees the amount of red liquid that’s covering the floor, he vomits.

I look away.

He slips and crawls up to Roisin. “Oh God, please no.” He presses two fingers against the side of her neck and screams her name out. I drop to my knees and cry with him.

Hallie comes into the room
with another other boy right behind her, and starts to scream and attack Cabe. She hits him over his head again and again as he pulls Roisin into his arms. His eyes are red raw and rimming with tears. He glances once and once only at Hallie when she finally stops hitting him, and then backhands her across her stupid face. Her head snaps to the right and then she slides over the floor.

I fly over to her and feel a huge disappointment when I see she’s still alive.

“Help me!” he calls out. “Someone help!” He gathers Roisin in his arms and rocks back and forth with her as the tears pour down his face.

“I’ll call an ambulance,” the other boy says, pulling his phone out of his pocket. I stare at his face and how pale and frightened he looks.

At that moment, Lance crashes into the room. He stares at Hallie with a look of shock, and then his eyes follow the trail of blood and everything changes.

Something warm cree
ps up beside me. The light changes from dull grey to bright yellow. I feel like I’ve stepped out into the sun. Then I see her.

Roisin moves slowly toward me. Her eyes crease
when she sees me and she smiles. I rush over to her, hugging her and feeling her skin against mine for the first time in sixteen and a half years.

“Mom,” she whimpers. “What’s happening?”

I grab her hand and turn her toward her limp body that’s lying on the floor. Lance is telling the other boy to call for an ambulance, even though he’s already doing it, while Cabe punches down on her chest.

“I’m dying,” she says slowly. Her voice doesn’t sound hurt or upset. She doesn’t sound sad or mournful for her
own death. She stares at her body on the floor and then looks up at me. “I got her, Mom. I did it for you.”

I cry and pull her into me. “You didn’t need to
, Roisin. Look what’s happened.”

She looks at Cabe and
then I see the sadness cross over her face. The boy she loves is sobbing his heart out over her. He calls her name over and over again, each time pounding his fist down against her chest. “Don’t leave me,” he begs. “Don’t you dare leave me! Not now, Rose.”

“I love him,” she whispers. “I didn’t want this to happen, but I needed to make sure she paid for what she did to you.”

I sniff and hold her hand tightly. “But you’re not there to tell anyone now, darling.”

She smiles and nods up toward
the ceiling. I see a small, red light blinking at me from beside one of the recessed lights in the ceiling.

“I had
cameras and microphones installed in every room downstairs the other day. I’ve told Charlotte and Cabe about them.”

I know she wants me to be pleased but I can’t
be. How can I be happy when she’s sacrificed herself for me?

Two men in bright green jackets
rush into the room. One of them crouches down next to Hallie, but Lance growls at them to leave her. “Sort Roisin out first,” he orders. “She’s my daughter.”

The paramedics swarm around her, blocking our view of what’s happening. Roisin squeezes my hand. “I feel funny,” she says. “Something isn’t right.”

I spy through the gap between their bodies and see them putting an oxygen mask on her and then she’s being moved.

“Riley!” shouts Cabe. “
Stay with Hallie and make sure she doesn’t move.”

Riley nods, turns
around, and slowly but purposely rolls his shoe over Hallie’s hand. I hear her bones cracking and then Cabe and Lance run out of the house with the paramedics as they wheel Roisin’s body into the ambulance.

I pull Roisin along with me. “W
e have to get in there,” I say.

We get to the door just as they start to shut them. I push Roisin in first and then I hop up as the door closes loudly b
ehind me. Cabe and Lance are seated on the two seats at the side, each of them covered in her blood, looking shell-shocked.

Roisin and I stand at the back of the ambulance and watch the paramedic’s hand
s move over Roisin as he hooks her up to machines. We hear a loud, long beep and then he starts shouting and banging on the walls of the ambulance.

“What’s happening?” asks Cabe
with wide, frightened eyes.

The ambulance skids to a stop and then the doors are
flung open.

“Why
did we stop?” Cabe demands.

“Her heart has stopped. We need to shock her.”

“Shit,” he sobs. “Please don’t let her leave me.”

The second paramedic climbs into the
back of the ambulance and then they pull out a machine. They tear open Roisin’s clothes and attach some pads onto her chest.

“Clear!” one of them calls out
, as a whizzing high-pitched noise screeches out.

Roisin’s head bounces and then her entire body follows.

“What are they doing?” Roisin whispers next to me.

“Your heart has stopped. They’re trying to
make it start back up again.”

“I’m scared,
” she whispers.

I turn and hug her and kiss her cheek. “I love you so much
, Roisin. I’m so proud of you and everything you’ve done. You’re an absolutely beautiful young woman. I loved you from the moment you were born.” I sniff and rub my face with my hands. “I treasure every second that I’ve had with you, and I will never ever forget the moment you were born and the love I felt for you that still consumes my every moment.”

Roisin
tears her gaze away from her bloodied body and blinks at me. “I love you too, Mom.”

She starts to sob. I hold her tight and shuffle her out of the way when Cabe stands up and marches past us. We both stand and stare as he pushes his hands angrily through his hair and paces up and down the road.

“She did this,” he roars into the ambulance. “That bitch, Hallie. She did this to her. She’s been hurting her for weeks!”

Lance doesn’t move. He doesn’t even look like he’s heard a single word
that Cabe said. Roisin moves to stand in front of Cabe. I watch her looking at his face, and I know she doesn’t want to leave him.

She starts to fade. She looks at her hands
, and then looks up at me with a panicked look on her face.

“Mom?” she asks.

I rush over to her and hug her as hard as I can. “I love you,” I cry. “I love you so much, Roisin.”

“Mom, what’s happening?”
she shrieks.

I look up and see her face greying out. “I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Just remember that I love you.”

She looks up once more and the fear in her eyes chokes me. “Mom, I don’t want to leave you. I love you.”