Page 132 of Wicked Refusal

“That’s exactly why I won’t do it to her.”

“Mia—”

“No.” My tone hardens. “Do this, and you’re fired.”

Isaak is livid. No doubt, he’s ruing the day he ever agreed to help me. But I can’t have him destroy Ginny on the stand.

I can’t do that to my little sister. I can’t hurt her.Not again.

Finally, Isaak exhales. “Your Honor, the defense requests a continuance to prepare for this rebuttal witness.”

“Continuance granted.” The judge bangs her gavel. “We’ll adjourn to tomorrow.”

I stumble out of the courtroom in a daze. Nikita stays close on my heels, ready to pounce at the first whiff of a fainting spell.

My parents’ faces are masks of consternation. “We had no idea she was going to do that,” Mom murmurs. “I am so, so sorry, honey.”

“It’s that guy’s goddamn fault,” Dad curses. “He put all sorts of ideas in her head. I just know it.”

I half-listen to them. My brainspace is too jumbled, too crowded with the same, pressing dread.I’m going to lose my kid.

When Ginny walks out, I find myself standing in her path. “Why would you do that?” I whisper with barely any voice. “Why would you do that to me?”

Ginny looks contrite, but determined. “Because I had to.”

“Youhadto?” I balk. “Youhadto put my kid’s custody in jeopardy? Youhadto tell the judge I’m a horrible sister, a horrible daughter, and a horrible mother, too?”

“Oh, don’t start,” she snaps. “You know as well as I do that all your stories about Brad were fake. You just wanted out.”

“‘Fake’?” I pull up my sleeve and shove my arm in her face. “Are these fake, too?” I point at the burns. Covered up with makeup, but still visible. Still scarred to high heaven. “He used to put cigarettes out on me. Did you know that? And then he hadmebuy the replacements.” My tone turns bitter. “Did I make this up, too?”

Her jaw sets. “I have no idea what I’m looking at. All I know is that I can’t keep living a half fucking life, Euphie.”

“What’s that got to do with you taking my son from me?!”

“It has everything to do with it!” she yells. “Because then you’ll finally run out of excuses and come back home!”

I fall silent. Everyone around us does.

Ginny’s chest falls heavily now. “You’ve lived your life, Euphie,” she whispers, her voice cracking around my old nickname. “You’velived.But I haven’t. Can’t you see?” She gestures helplessly at our parents. “They need someone. Twenty-four-seven, and I can’t be it anymore. I’ll lose my fucking mind.”

Her words hit me hard. But I can see Mom and Dad’s faces, and however hurt I’m feeling about this, I can tell it’s nothing compared to what it’s doing to them.

“How can you talk about your own parents like that?”

“Because they’re not my parents anymore!” she cries, teary-eyed. “They’re my dependents. They’re myjob. I wish to God I could go back to having parents, but right now, I don’t even have that anymore! All I have is two people who rely on me, and no one to help with that!”

“They always took care of you,” I try to argue, but it’s weak even to my own ears. “They always?—”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like?” She’s full-on bawling now. “To watch your life pass you by? To see everyone you’ve ever known leave your hometown, go to college, find their calling? Get married, have kids, have something to call their own? All while you stay in one place, itching to be out there and knowing you can never, ever do that?”

Each word is a dagger straight to my chest. Suddenly, it isn’t Ginny I’m seeing anymore—it’s the hundreds of burned-out caretakers I’ve watched break down in the hospital. All those people whose lives are frozen, who never get to clock out because they never had the choice of not clocking in in the first place.

The guilt hits in waves.

Ginny wipes her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “Eli will be fine with Brad,” she says. “He’ll be fine, and I’ll get my life back. And you can come home and take care of the ones who actually need you.”

I want to be mad at her. Want to scream and yell and curse. But how can I? How, when it’s clear she has no idea how dangerous Brad actually is? When he’s filled her head with all sorts of lies and promises?