Chapter 2 - What My Mother Knew
I stared at the screen.
James glanced at me.
“What is it?”
I showed him.
His expression changed immediately.
“Call her.”
I did.
Mom answered after the first ring.
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Are you somewhere safe?”
The question made my stomach tighten.
“We’re in the car.”
“Don’t go straight home.”
“Mom, what are you talking about?”
There was a pause.
Then I heard Dad speaking in the background.
“Karen, don’t.”
Mom lowered her voice.
“Lauren has been angry with you for months.”
“That isn’t news.”
“No.”
Mom swallowed audibly.
“I mean angry in a way you don’t understand.”
James slowed the car.
“What happened?” I asked.
“She came by two weeks ago.”
Mom sounded ashamed.
“She’d been drinking.”
“She said you thought you were better than her because you had James and Emma.”
I closed my eyes.
Lauren had always competed with me.
Jobs.
Birthdays.
Attention from our parents.
Even my wedding somehow became an insult to her.
But jealousy was different from what had happened tonight.
“What else?”
“She said something about making you understand what it was like to have everyone choose you.”
My skin went cold.
“What does that mean?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dad’s voice sounded louder.
“Enough, Karen.”
Mom snapped back at him.
“No, Tom.”
Then she returned to me.
“Because your father said she was just venting.”
James’s mouth became a hard line.
Dad took the phone.
“She was upset.”
“Dad, she hit my baby.”
“I know.”
“Then stop defending her.”
“I’m not defending her.”
“You followed her to the door.”
Silence.
Dad exhaled.
“Lauren has problems.”
“Then she needs help.”
“She needs family.”
“So does Emma.”
He had no answer.
James reached for my hand.
Dad finally said, “She left here furious.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
Mom suddenly spoke again.
“Tom.”
“What?”
“The keys.”
“What keys?”
Mom sounded frightened now.
“The spare keys.”
My heart stopped.
For years, my parents had kept an emergency key to our house.
Lauren knew where it was kept.
“Mom.”
I sat forward.
“Are you saying Lauren has our house key?”
“I’m saying I just checked the drawer.”
Her next words came slowly.
“It’s gone.”
James immediately turned the car at the next intersection.
I looked toward Emma sleeping behind us.
Then my phone lit up again.
This time, Lauren’s name appeared.
She had sent a photograph.
It showed our front porch.
May you like
Taken less than a minute earlier.
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