- 8.
Dad and I grabbed Mom’s bags.
Mom stared at Lindsey, her face tear-
streaked.
“What’s happening?”
Lindsey snapped out of her shock and threw
herself into Mom’s arms, her eyes filled with
something like gratitude.
“Mom, you’re alive!”
“I thought you…”
Her voice broke, and she started to sob.
Dad, his face like thunder, pushed Lindsey
away.
“You don’t have the right to call her that.”
Lindsey burst into tears.
“Dad, I was wrong! I thought it was Mom who
died!”
Mom looked at me, asking for an explanation.
I told her everything.
When I was done, Mom clutched her chest,
her eyes red–rimmed.
“Lindsey, how could you lie like that?”
Lindsey tried to explain.
“Mom, it was a mistake! I thought that body
was yours…”
“But Lindsay killed people, Mom! Please trust
me!”
Chad chimed in to help her sell the lie.
“Yeah, that body wasn’t your mom, but
Lindsay burned people.”
I laughed.
Dad’s face was dark.
“Lindsay, I know that you have always been a
liar, but I didn’t expect this.
“”
Dad was calm at first. But then, the tone got
louder and more fierce.
The last part of what he said, Dad yelled at
Lindsey.
Lindsey looked scared.
She stammered, “Dad, you have to believe
me… Lindsay burned her mom!”
Dad’s face twitched.
“You’re being an idiot!”
Lindsey was standing there, her face red.
“She’s your daughter. You should be honest
with me!”
“You don’t trust me because I’m not your
daughter?”
The crowd gasped.
“Adopted? That’s why they look so different.”
“Murder is murder.”
Dad’s face changed.
“You’re a monster. You have no right to be
here!”
The cops showed up.
“Who called?”
Lindsey said, “I did! That girl is a killer!”
