Page 96 of Single Mom's Undoing

I take a few steps back and turn to the side in an attempt to shield him from this horrendous scene. I hold him tight and whisper that it’s going to be okay, even though I’m not sure that it is. Time is running out, and I’ve got a feeling that it’s not on my side.

“Elizabeth, please!” I plead, shaking to my core. “Stop it!”

“Get out of my way!” Elizabeth screams and slashes Margot across the arm, but Margot grabs a vase from the coffee table and hurls it at her. It smashes into Elizabeth’s shoulder, shattering into small bits and pieces.

“You cut me!”

Margot isn’t done. She throws a left hook out.

It catches Elizabeth’s jaw, throwing her off balance. She falls, dropping the knife. It clatters, then slides across the floor.

“That felt good,” Margot mutters, then hisses as she noticesthe blood dripping from her forearm. It’s a nasty gash. She’ll need stitches.

“Alright, I’ve had about enough of this fucking circus,” Bill snaps and takes out his gun, pointing it directly at me. “You. Give up the child.”

“Dad.” Margot tries to reason with him again.

Laura and Wyatt seem confused, uncertain of how this will play out. Laura keeps stealing glances at the semiconscious Elizabeth, while Wyatt frowns as his gaze darts between Matty, me, and Bill’s gun.

“Boss, I don’t think that’s wise. I can get the kid,” he says.

“Shut the fuck up. I’ve got this. I’ve always got this!” Bill replies, his jowls quivering with unkempt rage while my heart shrinks to the size of a pea. I think of my son, of my baby growing inside me, of the life I could’ve had. I realize that I am ready to die, if I have to, if I can keep Matty safe, if I can shield him from what comes next. The realization tears my heart in two as I tighten my hold on him. “You stupid little girl. All you had to do was take the fucking money and leave. Was that so hard?” Bill asks me, albeit rhetorically.

I give him a hard look. “What kind of mother abandons her child, Bill?”

“Well, now I have to do the ugly part. Matthew will forgive me, eventually,” he says and switches the safety off his gun.

Laura clears her throat. “Boss, Wyatt’s right. I can just take the kid.”

“You’re not taking my child away from me!” I shout over Matty’s swelling cries. “It’s okay, honey, I promise. You know I always keep my promises.”

“I’m done asking nicely, Clara,” Bill says.

“Dad, please,” Margot is relentless, tears streaming down her cheeks.

I look down at Matty. For a moment, time stands still, and it’s just him and me again. Just the two of us, our hearts colliding, our souls forever bound as I remind him that I always keep my promises to him. He knows it. And he so desperately wants to believe me. My sweet little boy.

BANG!

The front door bursts open.

Boots on the ground. Thudding and thundering as the house is suddenly filled with special ops officers and federal agents.

“FBI!” one of them shouts. “Drop the guns!”

“Drop the guns!” another yells, even louder.

Men spill into the living room. Wyatt gets tackled before he can draw his weapon. Laura does the sensible thing and puts hers down as they surround her. Margot’s hands go up on instinct, while Elizabeth is still on the floor, trying to recover.

Bill freezes, his gun still pointed at me, finger about to squeeze the trigger.

All I can do is keep holding my son as the world unravels around us, as men in Kevlar vests armed to the teeth come into the room and assume control of what seemed like an out-of-control situation.

“Clara!” Carter’s voice sets everything right.

“PUT IT DOWN!” an agent shouts at Bill again.

Finally, he clenches his teeth and does as he’s told. The moment I see that gun being lowered is the moment I am able to breathe again.