Baby Doll(62)

“Lily was a wonderful companion, a brilliant mother, and a generous lover. The others demonstrated potential, as well. They were all better than you. All of them.” His words were hollow and revealed who he really was. He owed that to her. To show her that part of him. It was the truth, and she deserved the truth. He expected her to fall apart, to lose it. He was proud that she didn’t. Instead, she leaned in closer, cradling the phone to her ear.

“I hope you burn in hell, Rick.” She paused, then laughed. “What am I talking about? I know you’ll burn in hell for what you’ve done.”

She hung up the phone and walked out of his life. He was disappointed. Not because he lost her, but because he was pretty sure he’d lost the three-hundred-dollar-an-hour attorney her parents had been financing. Now he’d be stuck with some pathetic public defender. He really should have demanded that Lily sign something instead of trusting that bitch. He should have never put himself in this situation. But love blinded you; it made you do foolish things.

All this meant was that he needed a new plan. Over the past few days he’d focused his attentions on Angela, the pig-faced guard. He’d seen her watching him, sizing him up, wondering if everything she’d heard and read about him was true. She kept her distance but he’d been breaking the ice, starting casual conversations about meaningless things like the weather. He’d asked her why she’d intervened that first day when he’d been arrested. Why she stopped his beating.

Angela shrugged and said, “Because that’s not what we do.”

He appreciated her integrity but he hoped that it was tenuous. He needed to figure out an angle, find some way to get closer to her. He’d heard from the animals in this place that she was a single mom, which was good. They were easy targets: vulnerable and desperate for affection. He didn’t know why exactly, but he had a good feeling about her. He sensed something familiar in her, a darkness lurking under the surface. If he played his cards right, she might just be his ticket out of there. He was still trying to assess the situation properly. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was formulating a plan. That was his specialty: planning. One thing he was sure of was that once he escaped, he was going to pay a visit to Lily. She was in need of serious punishment for her transgressions. Don’t get too comfortable, he thought. I’m coming for you, Baby Doll.





CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE


LILY


Please just leave me alone.”

That became Lily’s mantra. For twenty-two days she camped out in her bedroom, perfectly content to stay locked away, perfectly content to shut out Rick, the media, the other victims, or anything else that might come her way. At least that’s what she told her family. Truthfully, after her behavior at the hospital, the things she said, Lily was too ashamed to face anyone. She’d crafted a long e-mail apology to Wes on Eve’s laptop, telling him what he’d meant to her, telling him that she wanted him and Abby to be happy. In the end, she’d deleted the entire thing and simply wrote: I’m sorry. Lily.

She’d tried to talk about it with Abby, but her sister didn’t want to discuss it.

“It’s already forgotten, Lil.”

But Lily couldn’t forget that night. She couldn’t forget how much she’d wanted to punish her sister. What if she did it again? What if Rick had ruined her? No, it was easier to stay in her room. She had Sky to cuddle with, to make her feel normal. Mom delivered her meals morning, noon, and night. The flat-screen TV was equipped with endless cable stations. Lily hadn’t seen cable TV in years. They’d had a black-and-white set with basic channels that worked sporadically. Lily was amazed at how much mindless entertainment there was. She was obsessed with reality TV and the inane problems of even more inane people. She enjoyed watching fights over meaningless things. Who got a rose? Who wore it best? What housewife was the most real? It was all so ridiculous that she couldn’t look away. It was easier to watch this mindless crap than think about Rick or the other girls or to think about the thing that was growing inside her. She’d found the perfect place to hide from the world and the terror that lurked in her subconscious.

And then she woke up one day, the house still dark, to find Sky gone. Terror coursed through Lily’s body. Where was she? Maybe Rick had sent someone for her. It was possible. Anything was possible when it came to Rick.

Lily bit back a scream, scanning the room, trying to keep her breathing steady. Sky never left Lily’s side without permission. Sky never did anything without making sure Lily gave her approval. She’d wait patiently for Lily to say yes, often trying to lure her out of the room. But this morning she was gone.

Lily leapt out of bed and was almost out the door when she spotted the edge of her grandma’s knitted blue quilt sticking out of the closet. She swung open the door and found Sky curled up in a ball, fast asleep. Relieved, Lily knelt down and wrapped her daughter in her arms. She’d picked Sky up and put her back to bed, telling herself this was an isolated event. But soon this became their routine, night after night, Lily waking from a deep sleep to find Sky dozing in the closet. Lily tried to ignore what was happening, tried to tell herself that Sky would be fine after more time had passed.

On the fortieth day of Lily’s self-confinement, she woke with a stomachache, her body racked with cramps. She found Sky in the closet and raced her back into bed. She felt something wet staining her legs and looked down to see blood.