Chapter 1 - The Smell I’ll Never Forget
Brianna had one fist twisted into my gray hair when she forced my face into the basin.
The smell hit before the meat did.
Rot.
Sour fat.
Something sweet and spoiled enough to make my stomach turn.
I tried to push myself up, but at seventy, after months of losing weight and strength, I was no match for her.
“Useless parasite. Even trash has its place.”
She yanked my head back.
I could barely breathe.
This was the kitchen of the Buckhead villa my late husband and I had helped our oldest son, Brian, buy six years earlier.
Now I was trembling on its polished stone floor while Brian’s wife looked at me like something she wanted removed.
She shoved me down.
Her shoe struck my side.
Then she lifted the metal basin.
Cold, rotten meat poured over my hair, shoulders, and floral dress.
Brianna laughed.
“Now you look exactly like what you’re worth.”
Then Megan appeared.
My younger son Jason’s wife crossed the kitchen so fast Brianna barely had time to turn.
Megan grabbed a piece of spoiled meat from the floor and hurled it straight into Brianna’s face.
It landed with a wet slap.
Brianna screamed.
Megan shoved her hard.
Brianna stumbled backward.
Her heel slid.
Then all of her weight came down on me.
My breath vanished beneath her body.
Pain shot through my ribs and thighs.
Megan stared at Brianna with a fury I had never seen before.
“Touch my mother again—and I’ll tell your husband about your pre-wedding affair.”
Brianna stopped struggling.
May you like
For one strange second, she seemed less frightened by what she had done to me than by what Megan had just said.
And beneath her weight, unable to move, I realized I had just heard about a betrayal that had begun years before I ever moved into that house.
