Page 142 of Tear Me Apart

She is trapped, she knows it, but she still wants to find a way out, a way to make this right. “Don’t you dare tell me what I want. You leave me alone with my daughter, let me talk to her, and then I’ll talk to you.”

“Not going to happen.”

“Leave. Us. Alone!” Lauren spits out the words, and the hate in her voice is enough to make Zack take a step back.

“You’re scaring Mindy,” he says quietly.

Mindyisscared, Lauren can sense this without even looking at her daughter. But it can’t be helped. She has to talk to her. She has to make her understand. The words keep playing in her head,Help her understand, let her love me again.

“Don’t make me do this. You have to leave now so I can talk to Mindy by myself.”

“Talk, Mom. Just...talk. But don’t do this.”

Lauren turns to her daughter, her joy, her life. Her gun arm is still raised, and with her turn, the nose of the weapon points at her daughter’s head. Mindy gasps and scrambles backward, but there is no place for her to go. She falls off the edge of the bed, and from outside the room, there is a flurry of motion.

As Mindy falls, and Zack dives to catch her, the dog sails into the air and latches onto Lauren’s gun arm, her sharp teeth puncturing the fragile flesh. The weight of the dog takes them both down.

Lauren screams her frustration, tries to pull free, but the strong jaws are clamped tight. The pain helps her focus on the unjustness of the situation. Mindy’s eyes are huge, staring at her from under the bed like she’s a monster, and the small parts of Lauren that are still hidden crack.

“Mindy,” she chokes out. “It was the only way. I want you to understand. I love you, honey.”

Zack is standing over them, shouting at the dog. He kicks the gun away, and whatever he’s saying makes Kat release her prey and back away. Lauren is hurt, stunned, bleeding heavily, and doesn’t make a move when the cops rush in and handcuff her.

She lost. She’s lost it all.

Zack steps between her and Mindy, and she is grateful. She doesn’t want Mindy to see all of this blood. Mindy can’t see the carnage. Mindy must be protected, still.

“Mom? Mom!”

“Mindy. It’s okay, baby. Mommy loves you.”

But she knows that finally, finally, it is over.

85

The shouts, the confusion, the look of naked longing on her mother’s face, it’s all too much. Zack lifts Mindy from the floor and gently places her back on the bed, and she immediately ducks her head under the blankets. Kat jumps up to cuddle beside her and barks once, sharp. She slips the blanket down and sees her mother’s blood staining Kat’s muzzle.

She has to look. She has to be brave.

Fingers twined in the dog’s fur, Mindy lifts her head. She will never forget the sight before her: her mother, bleeding profusely on the linoleum floor, the flesh of her arm torn apart. Zack, the avenging angel, standing over her, glowering. Two people she assumes are cops wrestling her mother into handcuffs. Her father is standing motionless outside the window as if he’s been frozen to stone.

Dr. Oliver is by her side now, shushing her, holding her head away, looking at her with a doctor’s practiced eye, shushing her again. She doesn’t understand why he keeps trying to quiet her; she isn’t saying anything. But she makes an effort to close her mouth, and the sudden silence is deafening; she has been screaming, she realizes, screaming one word over and over and over.

“No no no no no no...”

She says it one last time, a whimper, her voice hoarse. The crowd parts as Lauren is dragged to her feet. Mindy sees her mother’s eyes watching her, limpid and ice-cold at the same time.

“It’s okay, baby. It’s all going to be okay.”

The man with the skier’s tan is talking. “Lauren Wright, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Juliet Ryder—”

Her mom ignores him, her eyes latched on Mindy’s, her voice a mantra now: “It’s okay, sweetie. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll fix it all. Love you. Love you so much, baby.”

Dr. Oliver yells at them all to leave. Mindy’s head begins to swim, and she has a second to wonder how contaminated she is now—all these people—before the medicine Dr. Oliver has just shot into her veins takes her away.

86

VAIL HEALTH HOSPITAL