Page 25 of The Devil's Demise

“Yes, bab—?” I look toward her direction and my heart sinks. “Where is she?” I frantically ask Dante, snapping my gaze all around us. My pulse races a mile a minute, my hands growing ice cold.

“Carnelia? Where are you, baby?” I shout, my feet already moving. As people start to look our way. Dante is marching right next to me. “She was just here,” I anxiously say, swallowing the dread scraping up my insides.

“She probably went to the candy aisle.” He laughs, but I can tell he’s nervous too.

My heart pounds, my body hot and cold all at once. “Carnelia? Where did you go, baby?” We wander haphazardly down the produce aisle, heading for the candy section.

“Baby, it’s okay,” Dante tries to reassure. “She has to be here.” But that does nothing to help me because my daughter isn’t here.

I’m trembling, running down the nearby aisle, looking both ways, not finding her anywhere.

“Carnelia!” Dante yells. “Come on, baby girl. This isn’t funny.”

I choke on my fear, ready to tell him to inform the security and police.

“Mommy, I’m here!” she shouts and my breath catches, my gasping breaths slamming into my chest while I’m running toward her voice, tears swarming in my eyes, my throat throbbing from the heaviness of my emotions.

I don’t care how damn huge I am, I run like I’ve never run before. When I see her, all the blood from my face rushes out.

“Carnelia.” The word is a sharp bite as I glare at the person standing tall next to our daughter. “Go to your father. Right now.”

“But, Mommy, I was getting my ball from—”

“Now, Carnelia.” I can’t even look at her, my eyes unable to rip away from the woman who I once called Mom.

“Carnelia, come here, baby,” Dante now says, his footfalls approaching behind me, and she quickly goes running to him.

He places a hand on my shoulder, holding our daughter in his arms. I don’t even have to see his eyes to know they carry the same contempt I carry in mine.

I angle in a step, my gaze narrowed. “Stay the hell away from me and my family.” Contempt is laced thickly in my tone.

She snickers. “Nice to see you too, dear.” Her long fingernails run through her blonde highlights. “Not sure what you’re going on about. I was minding my business when she ran right into me, chasing this ball here.” She stares at her hand, containing my daughter’s pink fuzzy ball within it. “I was simply retrieving it for her. Youcouldsay thank you.” She glares with scorn, eyeing me with a callous grin she wears proudly. “I see you’re having another.” She takes a look at my stomach and all I want is to hide my child away from her. Both of them.

“What happens to me is none of your concern,” I stress, trying like mad to control my heavy breathing, but it’s impossible. I haven’t seen or spoken to her at all since the last time we talked on the phone while I lay in the hospital thanks to her after what Carlito did to me. “I’m glad I didn’t take any of my motherly lessons from you.”

“Not sure how much of a good thing that is.” She arches a mocking brow.

“Who is that, Mommy?” Carnelia asks, loud enough for that evil woman to hear.

“I’m your gra—”

“Don’t you ever say that word to her.” My voice rises, people scattering past us, sensing the tension. “You’ll never be that to my children. Do you understand me?” I take another step forward. My heartbeats pounding through me, making anger and nausea swirl in my gut. “You mean nothing to us. You never will.” Dante’s hand suddenly tucks in mine, and he gives me a reassuring squeeze. “If I see you next to any of my children again, you better turn the other way and pretend you don’t know us. Daddy wasn’t the only one with connections. We have friends everywhere, and with a flick of a finger, I can have an order of protection drawn up against you. Or better yet, have you thrown in prison for just about anything I can dream up.” Anger roils in my chest, my bitter smile tasting like victory.

She laughs cruelly. “Are you that afraid of me, darling daughter?” She flips her hair with the back of her hand. “My goodness, you’d think I’m a criminal. Like your husband.” She punctures Dante with a glare, and I swear I’m ready to land a punch into her perfect, white teeth. I’m not the same woman she remembers. She’s going to learn that quick if she continues.

Dante’s breathing speeds up, but he remains silent, his hand tightening around mine.

“You ever disrespect my husband again,” I grit with a snicker, dropping his hand and walking up to her until I’m close enough to whisper the rest in her ear. “I will kill you.”

She snorts, laughing dismissively. “You need therapy.” The taunting look in her eyes comes quick before her whole demeanor shifts. “Get away from me. Help!” She lifts her hands in the air, her chest flying up and down as she begins to cry, glancing around the store. “Someone help! This woman is crazy!”

“You’re pathetic,” I tell her, shaking my head. “Always have been. Always will be. I can’t wait until you die. Alone,” I whisper as she finally quiets, those eyes rounding at me. “With no one by your side. Because that’s what you deserve.”

That gets her mood to change back to her regular deranged one. “Do you know what I tell people when they ask what happened to you?” she hisses.

When I don’t answer, she continues, “I tell them you’re dead.”

“That makes two of us.” A smile wraps around my lips and there’s not an ounce of sadness in my heart, because I never had a mother at all.

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