“What are you going to do here, Lily? You think you can fix that girl? Well, you can’t. You have to fix your own life.”
Lily absorbed Abby’s words. She took them in, thinking about her own life, the fragments of her life. She leapt to her feet, tired of being rational.
“What life, Abby? What life? My father is dead. He died, and I never got to say good-bye. My mother is sleeping with God knows who. The entire world knows I’m having a monster’s baby. And if I don’t have the baby, they’re ready to label me a murderer. A monster. Me!”
Abby was backing away from Lily, as if driven by the force of her stinging words. But Lily couldn’t stop herself. She kept getting closer to Abby until they were almost nose to nose. “But you know what the worst thing is? You know what that is, Abby, don’t you? Tell me that you see it. Tell me you understand why I can’t go home with you and fix my life.”
Abby was crying. “I don’t… I don’t understand.”
Wes stepped forward, holding up his hand as if refereeing a fight. “Lily, stop it. Come on, Abby. I’ll take you to Eve’s and I’ll come back for Lily.”
“I don’t need you to come back for me,” Lily spat at him. She glared back at Abby, her fury building. “I asked you a question. Tell me, Abby, do you know why I can’t go home?”
Abby was crying even harder now. But Lily kept at her, not an ounce of sympathy on display. “I don’t have a home, Abby. I don’t have a life. Not anymore. You stole my fucking life.”
The look on Abby’s face was exactly what Lily wanted to see. Devastation, sorrow, regret: all of these emotions crashing into her. The instant Lily said it, the instant she saw Abby’s look, Lily’s legs gave out and she tumbled to the floor. She heard someone calling for a nurse, but all Lily could do was sit there on the scratchy carpet and stare at Abby, her body contorted as she sobbed, eyes haunted and swollen and clutching her pregnant belly. Wes moved to Abby’s side, whispering something to Abby that Lily couldn’t hear.
This is what he did, Lily thought. This is what Rick did. He found your weakness and then he pushed and pushed at you until he broke you down and destroyed you. That’s what he’d done to her, and now she’d done the same thing to Abby… and it couldn’t be undone.
Abby pushed Wes aside and almost crawled over to Lily.
“You think I wouldn’t give up all of this? You want Wes, you can have him, Lily!” Abby’s voice was barely a whisper. “Take him. It’s always been about you. It’s always been about us. We’re the twins. Me and you. That never changed. When you were gone, I was gone too. Three thousand one hundred and ten days, Lily. All I wanted was you. I’m sorry I blamed you for stealing the sweater. I had it. I had it all along. And I’m sorry I’m fat and gross and I’ve wasted my life. And I’m so sorry I can’t take all this pain away. I can’t change the past. I can’t change what happened to you. I can’t change what Wes and I did. Or what Rick did to you and these girls. But I would, Lily. You have to believe me. I’d do anything to change it.”
Lily began to cry. How could Lily help that child when she was so broken herself? Ashamed, Lily stood up and headed for the exit. Bursting out of the hospital doors, she started running. She owed Abby an apology. She owed Wes one too, but she wasn’t strong enough for that right now. The only thing she cared about was getting back to Sky. It had been the two of them before. It’d be the two of them against the world now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
RICK
He’d miscalculated. Rick had looked into Lily’s eyes and he’d listened to her make him a promise. And she’d lied. She’d flat out lied to him without even batting an eye. Once Lily was gone, he’d lost his cool completely, giving the officers the chance to pounce: pepper spray to the face, kicks and punches to his lower extremities long after they had him subdued. He kept thinking about ways he could stop Lily from killing his child, how he could ensure that his baby was protected. He’d hoped that when Missy came to visit him, he might convince her to help him. He was sure they could file some kind of an injunction. Missy could even raise the baby if she wanted.
But the minute she sat down, Rick realized that he’d lost Missy. It wasn’t her appearance. Her makeup was now flawless, her black pantsuit tailored to perfection—icy and untouchable, a perfect Southern belle in fluorescent light. It was the vindictive gaze in her eyes that told him everything he needed to know.