Page 21 of Mud

A second ticked by in awkward silence. This was it—itwas over. Whatever the meaning of this little meeting was, it was over now, and we were free to go.

“Certainly. Poppy could use the rest,” Grandma finally repeated, and Poppy stood up. So did I, thanking Iris that I didn’t have to endure another second of this madness.

Until…

“Not you, Rosabel. Please, give me another moment.”

Hill was looking right at me as he said this.Rosabelwas my name, too, so there was no way I was mistaken. And the way Madeline was looking at me, then at him…

Poppy curtsied, head down to hide her face. “Excuse me,” she muttered, and she made for the double doors, so fast it could be considered running.

Wait! Don’t leave me! Come back, come back, come back!

The words remained inside me.

“What is the meaning of this, David?” said Madeline, drink in hand as she stood up, too, looking at the IDD director like she couldn’t quite figure out what to make of him just now.

“May I?” he said, waving his hand at me, but he didn’t wait for her reply. He simply walked around the armchair where Poppy had sat, and he came all the way to me.

Damn it, he was taller than I realized, definitely over six feet, and he was towering over me. Smiling at me. Eyes sparkling, sowhite.

“David, that is Rosabel. I didn’t train her. She is not?—”

“But I just want to ask her a couple questions,” Hill cut my grandmother off.

He cut Madeline off and she clamped her mouth shut, which was how I knew thathewas the bigger monster here. A monster another feared.

I swallowed hard.

Then he turned to her, “With your permission, of course.”

He didn’t want her permission at all, didn’t care for it, but he was asking for show. To put her at ease. To give her a false sense of control.

And Madeline knew it.

“Go ahead,” she said anyway becausehehad the power now. He was the director of the IDD, not her.

“Tell me something, Rosabel, and please be honest with me. A yes or no will suffice,” the man said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I wanted to push it off me with all my being. I stayed perfectly still instead.

“Of course,” I said, my voice soft and easy, just like Madeline liked.

“Were you afraid when you looked at those images?”

My stomach twisted something awful. I risked a glance at Madeline—was there a proper answer to this, something she wanted me to say?

Her eyes were bloodshot as she sipped her drink and watched me. Murdered me in her mind.

She gave me no signal, no hint, but knowing her…

“No,” I said to Hill because if Madeline hated something just as much asdrama, it wasweakness.

Hill’s smile spread and his small teeth became perfectly visible. “Were you sad?”

Yes.“No.”

“Were you happy?”

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