Page 54 of The Fear
Hala just had her stupid apartment and a job wiping snot all day.
“You need to leave my apartment,” Hala said, in her prissy voice. Like everyone had to bow down to her.
“Give me my kid.” Wynnie was fucking hiding behind that woman, like Jessica was a monster or something. “Stop looking at me like that, Wynnie. Right now.”
Wynnie just started crying louder. She’d been crying since Jessica’s mother’s place. Why wouldn’t her kid just do what she was supposed to do? “Come on, Wynnie, I said let’s go!”
And that bitch was standing there, holding Jessica’s little boy. BJ was just clinging to her like Hala was his fucking mother and not her.
None of them appreciated what Jessica had done for them at all. None of them.
Her head was hurting. She’d probably drunk too much last night. This morning. Whenever. And…the world was just so fucking bright right now. Loud. Jessica didn’t know how much more of this she could take.
Maybe…she really was getting a migraine. She hadn’t truly had one in years. Not since she’d been fifteen or sixteen and had collapsed on the kitchen floor. And Janie…Janie had been like ten then. She’d called 911 tosaveJessica. It had been nice to have everyone giving her all the attention back then.
Now, no one but Billy did.
Billy…Billy should be coming soon. She just…needed to get her fucking kids.
So they could leave Value behind forever.
Jessica lunged. The woman holdingJessica’sson flinched. Like she was afraid of Jessica or something.
She laughed. That was fucking hilarious.
“Give me my son.”
“No.You aren’t taking these children anywhere.”
Who did she think she was?
Jessica shrieked.
And lunged.
Her fingers wrapped around BJ’s arm and she yanked.
That washerlittle boy and no one else’s. No one else could have her fucking kids.
47
Hala hadto let him go.
The knife…she had to get the little baby away from thatknife.
She let him go, shielding him as best she could as the little boy, so much smaller than Ryan, found his feet. The sight of his little Scraggle Popps shoes seared into her heart forever.Ryanhad those same little shoes. “Go, baby. Run outside. Go! You go outside and find a grown-up. Go!”
Hala turned more fully toward the boy’s mother. And leapt. “Run! Wynnie, go!”
Hala wrapped her hands in Jessica’s bloodied shirt. And lunged, throwing her whole body into the movement. Just like Grady and his brothers and Hudson had taught her and Greer when they’d been little girls so long ago.
All she wanted wastime.For Wynnie and her brother to get out.
And for Grady to get there.
Because he was coming.
Jessica’s hand wrapped in her hair, grabbing Hala by the ponytail that Grady played with all the time now.
