The Elizas: A Novel(64)

Dot didn’t answer.

“How long has this been going on? Months? Years?”

“Just a few months,” Dot mumbled into her chest. “February, I think. Right around Valentine’s Day.”

Her mother jerkily maneuvered the car through the parking lot. “And what do you do? Where does she take you?”

“Just to dinner.” Dot glowered at her nails, then started picking at one until it started to bleed. The blood looked satisfying running down her hand. “Just to this steak house. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. Why would you say she’s a felon? You’re delusional. What do you think she did, rob a bank?”

Her mother pressed her lips tightly together. “You know who told me about this situation? Your boyfriend. He says most Wednesday evenings he can’t find you, and Thursdays you’re not in your dorm room in the morning. You don’t go to class. He says you’ve been acting strangely, and that you’re not finishing your assignments anymore. He told me what you’ve been up to. That you’ve been seeing her. That you’ve been drinking. You’re not supposed to drink, Dot. Especially not with her.”

Dot hated Marlon. How could he have betrayed her to her mother, of all people? She tossed her hair as best she could, despite her throbbing head. “She’s my family. And she took care of me, in case you don’t remember.”

Her mother let out an ugly laugh. “You really think that’s what she was doing? Taking care of you? You really don’t know?”

“Know what?”

Her mother looked astonished. “Dot, she’s trying to kill you.”

Dot stared at her incredulously, but then something on the road distracted her. “Look!” she cried, pointing. Her mother had veered into the other lane, and a truck was heading right for them. The driver laid on his horn. Mother and daughter screamed, but Dot’s mother managed to steer out of his way just in time.

“Pull over!” Dot screamed, and surprisingly, her mother did.

They both breathed heavily, listening to the idling engine. Cars swept past them. Across the street, outside a 7-Eleven, a couple ran toward each other and embraced.

“I want out,” Dot said, grappling at the door handle.

Her mother hit the lock button. “Don’t go. Please. You don’t understand how sick she is.”

“She’s not sick.” Dot really didn’t want it to be true. “You’re just jealous of her. You’ve always been. That’s why you sent her away from the hospital. You made her leave.”

“Dot, she was trying to poison you!”

Dot gawked at her mother. “W-what?”

Her mother pushed her hair out of her face. Her features had elongated into worried ovals. There were frown lines deeply etched into her forehead. “She was poisoning you in the hospital. She gave you strychnine in small doses. It’s a pesticide. It made your seizures come on, which made the doctors flock around you, and which put her at the center of a situation. She has a psychological illness. It’s called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Do you know what that is?”

Dot shook her head. It had gotten so hot and steamy in this car all of a sudden, like they were in the middle of a rain forest.

“It’s when a caregiver either makes up or brings on symptoms in a child because they want attention. Well, and also because they get joy out of deceiving others who seem more powerful than they are, like nurses and doctors. But because they appear so caring, and because they can be so manipulative with the hospital staff and the child, sometimes people don’t catch on for a long, long time.” She touched Dot’s arm. “It’s child abuse. The doctors figured it out; that’s why they sequestered you to the ICU. You got better there because she wasn’t able to get in and put anything in your IV. We had to file a restraining order for her. There was going to be a big investigation—she was going to jail. That’s why she left town.”

Dot felt vomit rise in her throat. “No. She didn’t do any of that. Where’s the proof?”

“Your blood tested positive for strychnine poisoning. I have the paperwork, if you want to see it. Once the doctors suspected, they banished you to the ICU. There was a warrant out for Dorothy’s arrest.”

“She didn’t poison me. It had to be one of the nurses.”

“It wasn’t.”

“But she took care of me. She loves me.”

“No, she didn’t. She did the opposite. She tricked you. She tricked all of us.” Her mother’s voice shook.

Dot couldn’t listen to this anymore. Groaning, she shifted back onto her seat, undid the lock button, and pulled at the door handle.

“No!” her mother cried, reaching for her once more. But instead of grabbing her shoulder, she grabbed the ends of Dot’s hair. Dot moved one way, her mother pulled the other, and there was a horrible ripping sound. White pain shot through Dot’s skull, straight to her eyeballs. She screamed out and clutched her head.

When she looked over, her mother was trembling. A few strands of hair were in her hands. “I’m sorry,” her mother whispered. “Oh my God, Dot, I didn’t mean to do that.”

Dot said nothing, just whimpered and cradled her scalp.

“Let’s just go home, okay? I’ll take you home. We’ll have dinner and talk it through.”