9
Lilian had lost all her previous arrogance. Her face was bruised from my mother’s attack, and she sat silently in a corner.
I walked over to her. “We need to talk.”
I led her to the women’s restroom. “You’re in deep trouble this time,” I told her.
She looked up at me. “Sarah, I’m sorry I was wrong. Please, put in a good word for me. I just have bad eyesight. I made a mistake. I didn’t mean to.”
I patted her back consolingly. ‘Of course I know you didn’t mean to. But I can’t help you! Mark just told me he wants to call the police. It took everything I had to talk him out of it for now.”
“You went way too far this time,‘ I sighed. “I can’t help you.”
Lilian looked like she was about to collapse, leaning against the wall, her face ashen.
“He can’t move right now, so he can’t call the police. But once he’s better, it’ll be a different story. The best I can do is try to keep my mom off your back for a while. But you’ll have to beg for Mark’s forgiveness yourself.
Begging for forgiveness was impossible now. Mark hated her. He was determined to send her to prison.
Lilian knew it too. The moment she appeared in front of Mark’s room, he cursed her away.
Standing outside his door, she pulled out her phone and began searching for the sentencing guidelines for aggravated assault. As she read, her expression slowly hardened.
Late that night, she returned to Mark’s room. She took a pillow from a nearby chair and pressed it down hard over his face.
She held it there until he stopped struggling, until he was completely still. Then she left.
A little while later, a nurse doing her rounds discovered the body.
My mother’s grief was theatrical, a storm of wails and tears. I stood beside her, squeezing out a few crocodile tears of my own.
“But he was fine this morning,” I said to the doctor. ‘How could he have died so suddenly?”
My mother chimed in. ‘My son was alive this morning! It must have been you incompetent doctors! You killed my son! You’ll pay for this!”
The hospital, unsure of what had happened and fearing a lawsuit, immediately called the police.
The only way to determine the cause of death was an autopsy
Lilian, panicking, was the first to object. “My husband has suffered enough! Are you going to desecrate his body too? Let him rest in peace!*
My mother now saw her as the enemy. Her words, instead of being comforting, only aroused suspicion. “My son died for no reason! As his mother, if I don’t find out why, that’s what will truly dishonor him!”
Seeing she couldn’t stop my mother, Lilian knew she was doomed. She made a flimsy excuse and ran.
The police caught her at the bus station.
When my mother learned the true cause of Mark’s death, she cried until she collapsed with a fever. I was too busy with the funeral arrangements and collecting condolence money to care for her
When she woke up, her mind was gone. She clutched a pillow to her chest, calling it her son.
Thad her committed to a psychiatric hospital. It didn’t cost much.
Now ail the family assets were mine. I sold the house, the car, everything And I left that city behind.
I made a new home in a new city. The future could only get better.
