Page 75 of Caged Bird

Someone had been in here.

Fawn and I both rushed into the room, Fawn’s gasp of shock spearing through my soul first.

My mother’s dead eyes a close second.

She stared unseeingly at the ceiling, her fingernails ripped and bloodied.

“Noooo.” Fawn dropped to her knees over the body and shaking her shoulders. “Margaret! No!”

But there was no life in my mother to bring back.

She was gone.

And so was Otis.

Fawn seemed to realize the same thing in the same moment. “Otis?” She lurched to her feet; yanking open the closet door. “Otis!”

I did the same, frantically checking under the bed, in the bathtub, in closets and chests of drawers. Anywhere a small boy could hide.

Nothing.

I caught up with Fawn on the bottom floor, catching her as she ran wildly, fear turning her dark eyes huge.

“Anything?” I asked her.

She shook her head frantically. “He’s not here, Zane! He’s not here!”

I couldn’t breathe through the ache in my chest. It wrapped around me like two thick bands I couldn’t shake. “No. He’s here. He’s got to be here somewhere. Otis! It’s safe. You can come out!”

A slip of paper on Eddie’s recliner caught my eye, out of place because of its white color against the dark brown of the fabric.

I recognized my brother’s handwriting before I even picked the paper up.

I tried to make us a family. But I have a traitor for a brother and a slut for a wife. I told you I didn’t do second chances. You should have listened.

The paper crumpled in my fingers. “Fawn.”

My voice was barely above a croak.

She came running, snatching the paper from my fingers, her own trembling as she read my brother’s message.

“He was never going to kill us,” I muttered.

She shook her head. “No. He’s not that kind. He just killed the person you loved.”

I swallowed hard, the situation settling into full, horrifying color. “And took yours.”

20

FAWN

Margaret had put up a fight to protect her grandson, that much was clear. She was missing two fingernails completely, the rest had blood beneath them, like she’d clawed at Eddie as he’d tried to take Otis from her. One of her arms was broken, and there were marks all over her body, like she’d taken a beating in the process.

“This is my fault,” I whispered. “We should have been here to help her fight.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Zane put his arm around me, but I shrugged it off, not deserving to be comforted. “Stop it! I’m his mother!” I spun and stared at Zane, anger mixing with fear and grief. “We were out in that shed having fucking sex while Eddie was in here murdering your mother and kidnapping my son! How is any of that not our fault, Zane? If we’d been here, we could have stopped it! Of course it’s our fault!”

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