Page 128 of Your Fault

“Noah and I had a very interesting meeting a few months back. It’s incredible what a person can do for money and for the sake of morbid curiosity, isn’t that right, Noah?”

Anabel looked almost insane. Nick stared at me incredulously.

“That’s a lie!” I shouted at that devil of a woman. “Nicholas, it’s not what you think! I agreed to meet her because she told me otherwise, she’d stop letting you see Maddie. That’s the only reason!”

“You saw her behind my back! You never told me?”

Nicholas’s eyes pierced my heart. I’d never seen such pain in them before. I knew I’d betrayed him by meeting with her, but it hadn’t been curiosity or money that had motivated me. I did it for him. All that woman wanted was to come between us, and her mere presence so upset him that he couldn’t listen to what I was telling him.

“Nicholas, listen…”

He wouldn’t let me complete the sentence. He stepped back, gave everyone a hateful look, and walked out, slamming the door.

I turned back to that demon woman. “The only reason you came here is to cause more harm than you already have!”

Anabel looked unfazed by all that was happening around her. She was calm, relaxed even. She seemed to be in her element. Her face hardened when she heard the door slam, and she turned back to William with determination. “I’ve come to inform my daughter’s father that the girl is his and that he must take responsibility for her.”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure what I was hearing. I looked at her, then at William, as he brought his hands to his head, and finally at my mother, who was a wreck, almost paralyzed after striking the one person who would never have hurt her.

And then, it all made sense.

William stepped forward between the two women. “You know what, Anabel? You’re a fucking liar, and I don’t believe a single word of what you’re saying.”

Anabel opened her bag and took out some papers, showing them to him as if they were printed on gold leaf while I remained still, watching the soap opera unfold before me.

“It’s a DNA test. I always had my suspicions, but I never wanted to find out because I was afraid Robert would leave me. But he’s turned out to be exactly like you, and now he wants to take everything away from me. Well, that’s not going to happen. Madison is your daughter, and you’re going to have to provide for her care.”

My mother continued standing there in silence. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

William tore the pages from her hand, looked them over for a moment, and then glared at her.

“Lies. This is just a bunch of fucking lies. I never took any DNA test. I never submitted to this, so you can get out of my sight before I call security and have you kicked out.”

Anabel smiled smugly. “The results are correct. You think it was hard to find someone to go into your house and get a DNA sample? You didn’t think it was odd when you got that call about a break-in and nothing was stolen apart from a hairbrush?”

Oh God…the thieves who broke in last summer… I couldn’t believe it; it had to be a lie. This was madness. Anabel had hired them; she must have paid their bail to get them out. I’m sure it was easy for them to hide the hairbrush from the police.

William was speechless. Anybody would be after a revelation like that.

Anabel turned to me with spite. “Look at you, judging me. How dare you.”

I walked straight up to her. “You know what I think? You don’t deserve to be a mother.”

Anabel chuckled and looked over at my mother. “Funny you should tell me that, when your mother was the one who left you alone at home with a man who nearly killed you while she was fucking my husband in a five-star hotel.”

My mother stepped in front of me and shouted, “Get out!”

Anabel giggled again and continued, with pity, “I left my son with his father because I thought it was best for him. Never in my life would I have left him with an abuser.”

My mother covered her mouth with her hand and began to sob uncontrollably. Anabel walked out. I turned to my mother, waiting for her to deny what that woman had just told me.

“Mom…?” I hadn’t realized my voice would crack until the word came out.

“Noah, I…”

Could the words of that witch possibly be true? Could my mother and Will really have met long before they’d married? When my father had almost killed me, had it really been because my mother was with another man?

“You said…you said you were working…” I responded, tears streaming down my cheeks, blinding me to everything in the rest of the room.