Chapter 3 - The Depths of the Betrayal
Brenda covered her face with her hands, dry, jagged sobs wracking her shoulders. She looked utterly broken, a shell of the woman Eric had married twelve years ago. But Eric felt no pity. The image of Emma shivering in a four-foot-deep hole had erased any capacity for mercy he had left for his wife.
"Tell me, Brenda," Eric demanded, stepping closer. "Before I call the state police and hand this phone over to a detective."
"If you call them, they’ll arrest me too!" Brenda shrieked, looking up, her eyes wild with desperation. "You don't understand, Eric! It happened ten years ago. Before we even had Emma. My mother... she used to run an unlicensed daycare out of that farmhouse. Sarah Chun was one of the kids. She was a foster child from the city."
Eric felt a cold sweat break out across his neck. "What did Myrtle do to her?"
"It was an accident! At least, that's what Mom told me," Brenda stammered, her hands shaking as she reached for a glass of water on the nightstand, only to knock it over. "Sarah wouldn't stop crying. Mom put her in the basement to 'quiet down' during a winter storm. The furnace broke. By the time Mom went down the next morning... Sarah was gone. She froze to death."
"And instead of calling an ambulance, your mother buried her in the backyard," Eric said, the horrific puzzle pieces falling into place with a sickening clarity. "And what about the dog tag?"
"The foster agency was looking for her, so Mom told them Sarah’s biological uncle had picked her up," Brenda whispered, her voice dropping so low it was almost lost to the wind outside. "The dog tag belonged to Sarah's father, who was overseas. Mom kept it as a... as a reminder. A reminder of what happens to 'bad children.'"
Eric stared at his wife, absolute disgust boiling in his veins. "And you knew. You knew this entire time, and you still let her watch our daughter."
"I had to!" Brenda cried out, reaching for Eric’s jacket, though he stepped back, avoiding her touch as if she were contagious. "I owed money, Eric! I got into a bad spot with some online gambling while you were away. I lost forty thousand dollars. The bank was going to foreclose on the house before you even got back from deployment. Mom said she would pay off the debt, but only if I signed temporary guardianship of Emma over to her. She said she wanted to 'correct' Emma's behavior. I didn't think she would put her in the dirt! I swear I didn't know!"
"You sold our daughter to a murderer to cover your gambling debts," Eric said, the words landing in the quiet room like heavy stones.
Before Brenda could answer, the sharp, distinct sound of a vehicle pulling into the gravel driveway echoed from downstairs. Eric walked over to the window and pulled back the curtain.
May you like
It wasn't the police.
It was a black, unmarked SUV with tinted windows. Two men in dark corporate suits stepped out, followed by Myrtle Savage, who was pointing directly at the front door of Eric’s house. The nightmare wasn't staying in the mountains; it had followed him home.
