Page 168 of Everything She Feared

“Watch Katie? Why?”

“They need you at the hospital now, to tend to things.”

“I just don’t know, I just—” Sara’s fingers clawed at her hair.

“It’s a horrible time,” Bella said. “Let me help.”

“Mom?”

They both looked up at Katie standing at the top of the stairs.

“Did something happen to Grandma?”

“Oh, Katie,” Sara said. “We’re not sure. Please go back to your room.”

“Hi, sweetheart.” Bella smiled up at her.

Katie remained at the top of the stairs, staring at them, looking at Bella, assessing her while the tiny distant voice of Hetta Boden chirped from Sara’s phone. In a moment of clarity, Sara became aware of her phone and the rush of wind-driven rain at the open door.

“Come in, Bella, I’ve got to find out—” she said, turning partway and raising her phone. “Are you still there, Hetta?... What hospital?... Bella Spencer is here...”

Bella stepped inside, pushed the door closed, removed her rain hat and smiled up at Katie.

“You get prettier every time I see you,” Bella said.

For her part, Katie knew Bella from visiting Grandma at the seniors’ home. But staring at her now, Katie discerned that she’d seen and heard Bella someplace else, too.

“You were at my school,” Katie said, “when Dylan and his friends called me names.”

“I was watching over you,” Bella said. “I’ve been watching over you for a long time, like a guardian angel. I was at Sparrow Song Park on the same day you were there.”

“I didn’t see you.”

“I was there.”

Sara lowered her phone and turned to Bella.

“Hetta Boden at Silverbrook says she didn’t send you.” Sara’s face tensed. “Why’re you here?”

Bella looked at Sara, satisfaction, then triumph emerging on her face.

“Don’t you know who I am,Hayley?”

Sara stared hard at Bella, and in that moment her heart dropped from her body, for she saw the answer, saw the truth raging behind Bella’s eyes—Magda stood before her.

Icy fear wriggled up Sara’s back like a spider.

“You know what today is,” Magda asked, “and why I’m here?”

Sara stood rooted in shock, squeezing her phone, her thumb accidentally ending her call with Hetta as Magda stepped toward her.

“You and that woman who stole you from me said I don’t exist! Me! Your true mother, your rightful mother! You never once reached out for me! You have my blood! I gave you life!”

Shaking her head, Sara stepped back, her mind racing.

“No!” Sara said. “No! You gave me pain!”

“I’m here to take what belongs to me!”

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