Page 267 of Sin Bin

Her aunt’s voice wrenched her out of the horrific flashback. She was gasping and looking around frantically, her surroundings suddenly unfamiliar.

“He killed them!” she screamed hysterically. “He killed my parents!”

“I know, baby,” her aunt wailed tearfully. “When I came home from work and saw their bodies on the floor…your father…my sweet sister…dear Jesus,” she whimpered brokenly. “I couldn’t believe my eyes! You were lying on the couch unconscious and…oh God, Meadow, I just lost it! I started screaming and hitting him and asking him what the hell he’d done! His eyes looked wild, like he was in shock. When I ran over to check on you and saw that your head was bleeding, I started panicking and shrieking. He grabbed me and dragged me away from you. I begged him to let me take you to the hospital before you lost any more blood. He finally agreed, but he warned me not to go to the police. He told me if I didn’t come back in an hour, he would drive to my parents’ house and kill them! Then he’d find you and me and kill us, too!

“I was shaking so bad I could barely walk, let alone carry you to the car. I got you to the hospital as fast as I could, and I told them you hit your head on the corner of the dresser while you were playing. I found out later that you had two broken ribs. At first Flynn told me that he’d accidentally dropped you on the floor. But later when he got drunk, he admitted that he’d kicked you out of anger and frustration.” Everly was crying, her voice heavy with wet sobs. “After I left you at the hospital that night, I rushed back home and helped him…I helped him clean up all the blood—”

“You mean you helped him cover his tracks!” Meadow yelled in enraged disgust. “You helped him cover up my parents’ murders!”

“Yes!” her aunt screeched desperately. “I had no choice!”

“Bullshit! You could have called your parents and warned them to leave the house! You could have gone to the police and told them what happened! They could have helped you!”

“I didn’t know that! I was panicked and scared out of my mind, and I wasn’t thinking clearly! My husband had just killed two people and was threatening to kill me and the rest of my family! I couldn’t take any chances! So yes, Meadow, I helped him! I helped him take your parents’ bodies to your house. He drove your father’s car and I drove ours. When we got there, we…we staged the scene to look like a home invasion that went wrong.”

Meadow doubled over in agony, wracked by unspeakable grief.

“You have every reason to hate me, Meadow. But you have to understand that I saved your life! You couldn’t stay with us after what happened to your parents. Do you understand that? You were the only living witness to your uncle’s crime. He was terrified that you would remember what happened and tell on him. He would have killed you before he let that happen! He would have killed all of us!”

Meadow had her arms wrapped around her legs and was rocking back and forth, crying soundlessly.

The words kept tumbling out of her aunt’s mouth. “Your grandparents wanted to keep you. They couldn’t understand why we had to give you up for adoption. I didn’t tell them the truth because it would have destroyed them. Dad had serious health issues and they were drowning in debt. I wasn’t financially stable either. I convinced them that my friend at DFS could find a good home for you. It broke their hearts to let you go. Dad got even sicker after that, and Mom became so depressed she was no good to anyone.” Everly’s voice thickened with tears of sorrow. “They went to their graves blaming me for taking you away from them. But I did what I had to do to protect you, and I’m not sorry for that! Since I couldn’t save your parents’ lives, I owed it to them to save yours! So, yes, I pushed your uncle down those stairs so he couldn’t come after you. I killed him, and because of that, my children don’t have a father anymore and I don’t have a husband. But I’d do it again to protect you!”

Meadow squeezed her eyes shut, tears dripping from her nose and cheeks.

“Before my friend left DFS, I asked her for one last favor. I didn’t know if you would ever regain your memory of what happened to your parents. I prayed to God you wouldn’t. But just to be safe, I asked my friend to destroy your records. I thought you might request them someday, and I didn’t want you to see the hospital report or anything else that might trigger your memory of that night.”

Meadow shook her head from side to side, fresh pain wringing her heart.

“Anyway,” her aunt continued in a more composed voice, “your uncle’s funeral is next Saturday. I don’t expect you to come, of course. I just wanted to reach out and tell you what happened. You deserved to know the truth once and for all.” She paused for a long moment. “Maybe now we can both be free of the past.”

Meadow’s ears were ringing and her vision grayed around the edges.

As her phone slipped from her hand, she pushed herself to her feet. The room spun as she staggered to the bed and collapsed in a broken heap.

With her arms wrapped tightly around herself, she closed her eyes and succumbed to anguished, wrenching sobs.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

MEADOW

She didn’t know how long she lay huddled under the covers.

She drifted in and out of sleep plagued with nightmares that were all too real. Visions of her dead parents bombarded her brain like loaded grenades, making her cry out and toss fitfully on the bed.

As day slipped into night, she forced her heavy eyelids open and lay staring out the window at the glittering city lights. Her mind was reeling, her heart aching, her body engulfed in pain.

Her phone buzzed somewhere in the dark room.

She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling until the phone went silent. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. Just breathing was painful.

Seconds later the phone buzzed again. The caller was persistent.

With her body protesting, she sat up slowly and dragged herself out of bed. She felt like she was slogging through quicksand as she made her way toward the door where she’d dropped her phone.

As she bent to pick it up, she was seized by a moment of panic. What if her aunt was calling back with more shattering revelations? How much more could she take?

Relief washed through her when she looked at the screen and saw Jess’s number. She pressed the answer button, brought the phone to her ear and croaked, “Hello?”

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