Page 20 of Cryptic Curse

“Please, let me keep my baby, Papa.Please.”

“No.”

In a flash my father is holding a pistol, and he puts the nose against my head.

My heart races as fear courses through me.This can’t be good for the baby.He wouldn’t end my life.Would he?

Then again, he does heinous things every day.

“Papa, please.”

“Choose, Daniela.You or the baby.”

“Papa…” I sob.

“We’re going to the hospital.Everything is prearranged.You will have the procedure.”

“No!”

But he pushes the gun against my hair.“Fine.Like I said.Choose.Either I end your life, or you end the baby’s.”

I gulp back my sobs.“If you kill me, the baby will die too.”

“Exactly,” he says.“Either way, I get what I fucking want.”

* * *

Present Day…

“How long do we have to stay?”Belinda asks me in a small voice.

She was so happy when we left.She’d just finished playing, which makes her the happiest, and then I told her that Vinnie was taking us out to dinner and she could get that ice cream she loves.

But now, as we stand outside of Raven’s father’s hospital room, she looks anything but happy.

“You all right?”I ask.

“I don’t like this place,” she says.

“I don’t like hospitals much either,” I say.

“How come?”she asks.

I can’t burden Belinda with my past, not when she has her own to overcome.

“The smell,” I say.“Why don’t you like hospitals?”

She looks down at the tiled floor.“The last time I was at this hospital,hebrought me.To see Vinnie’s mother.”

She’s talking about her father.She never refers to him by name.

I can’t blame her.After what he did to his own daughter, he’s lost all claim to parenthood, even in death.

“Oh, sweetie.”I grab her hand.“Come on.We’ll get you something out of the vending machine, okay?”

She looks around.“Where did Vinnie go?”

“When Raven went in, he said he had to make some phone calls.I don’t know where he went, but he’ll be back.Come on.”