Page 127 of Hell Hath No Fury

“That’s okay, sweetie.” Ashley’s voice was as soft and nurturing as any good mother’s. But once Daphne’s bedroom door clicked shut, Ashley locked her gaze onto Emma, her eyes crazed. “What are you doing down there?”

Emma swallowed. “I lost my contact.”

The lame excuse may have worked with Daphne, but not her mother. “Don’t give me that. I’m a mom. I have finely honed lie detector skills.” A smile crossed her lips, but there was nothing pleasant about it. “To be honest, it was Sonny who honed those skills.”

Emma had no good response. Before she could think of something to say, she realized she hadn’t heard Nell’s voice since Ashley appeared in the doorway. “Where’s my sister?” Emma asked, staring at the knife and terrified of the answer.

“I’m okay,” Nell called from the other room. Her tone sounded miles from being okay.

“What did you do to my sister?” Emma demanded.

“You answer my question first.” Ashley aimed the knife at Emma. “What are you doing down there?”

She looked at the indentations in the carpet. Ashley knew full well what she was doing down here, but Emma had no intention of admitting what she suspected happened in this room. “I was noticing these divots.” She touched the dent while covertly brushing away the tiny glass fragment from her finger. “You must’ve had a coffee table here and moved it recently. I did the same thing a while back and had a helluva time getting the carpet to bounce back.” Emma met Ashley’s gaze with the sincerest smile she could muster. “You know what worked? Ice cubes.”

Ashley lowered the knife to her side again and appeared perplexed. “Ice cubes?”

“Yeah. Put an ice cube in each of these and let them melt. I don’t know why, but the carpet pile puffs back up.”

“Huh. I’ll have to try that.” Ashley unzipped her hoodie, reached up, and slid the garment off her shoulder and down the arm of the hand holding the knife. She switched the blade to her other hand and shrugged the rest of the way out of the hoodie, letting it drop onto the couch.

For the first time since Sonny’s death, Emma got a good look at Ashley’s hands. One of them was wrapped in the same kind of bandage Emma once used on her horses’ legs. Then Emma’s focus shifted to Ashley’s bare arms. At first glance, they looked fine. Then Ashley half turned while keeping her eyes on Emma. The backs of her arms were marred with fresh scabs. Some of the wounds still appeared inflamed and raw.

“Nice, huh?” Ashley said scornfully. She reached over her shoulder and hiked up the back of her shirt, revealing more scabbed-over cuts.

Emma flashed back to that morning at the construction site when Ashley had arrived, frantic. The way she’d yelped and jerked away when Fergusson had reached out and touched her arm. “What on earth happened?” Emma whispered.

Ashley let her shirt fall back in place and faced Emma, still gripping the knife. “You’re right about there having been a coffee table there. It was vintage. One of my favorite yard sale finds. It had gorgeous, fine legs and an old glass top. It was beautiful.” Her gaze darkened. “It’s really all your fault that it’s gone.”

Emma’s mouth went dry. “Myfault?”

“Sonny came home Saturday night even more drunk than usual. He was ranting and cussing about the big deal that had fallen through. Aboutyouripping up the agreement. He kept going on about how much money he’d offered you and what a fool you were for turning it down.”

“You can’t blame me for not wanting to sell my family farm,” Emma said softly.

A crash came from the kitchen.

Nell.

Ashley brandished the knife at Emma. “Don’t move.” She backed away, stopping at the kitchen doorway. “What are you doing?” she asked Nell. “I told you to stay still and not do anything stupid.” Ashley continued to mutter, her gaze locked on whatever Nell had done.

Emma seized the opportunity and eased her phone from her pocket. Ashley didn’t notice.

The incoming call had been from Matthias and had gone to voicemail. There was no way she could listen to it. Instead, she tapped the icon to call him back, put the call on speaker, and turned off the volume. She could only pray she hadn’t also muted what she wanted him to hear.

“You try anything else,” Ashley said to Nell, “and your sister is dead. Understand?”

Emma slid the phone under the sofa as Ashley’s gaze came back to her.

“Now, where were we?” Ashley moved away from the kitchen and closer to Emma. “Oh, yeah. How this is all your fault. If you’d only signed the damn paperwork, none of this would’ve happened.”

“I still don’t understand how my decision to keep what’s mine caused your coffee table to get broken.”

“Don’t be stupid. This goes way beyond my favorite piece of furniture, and you know it. Sonny was livid. He was spewing the most vulgar words about you and Eric Baker. In front of Daphne. I’ve been teaching her about not using certain words, and my sweet girl meekly reminded her daddy about the ones he was using regarding Eric. Sonny turned on her and told her to shut up and started cussing at her. I just knew he was gonna hit her. Like he always hit me. I’d warned him what would happen if he ever did. I grabbed his arm to stop him, and he shoved me. Hard. I fell backward onto the coffee table.”

Emma’s mind was already racing ahead, imagining what happened next.

“Needless to say, the thing shattered. Daphne screamed and started crying. That’s when Sonny backhanded her across the face.” Ashley’s eyes shifted, and Emma knew she was back there, reliving the moment. “The rest is a blur. Like I stepped outside of my body and watched it happen to someone else. I got up, and there was a piece of broken glass in my hand. The next thing I knew, the glass was sticking out of Sonny’s belly. He looked dazed. Then he looked down and pulled the glass out. He… collapsed. There was so much blood.” Ashley’s voice trailed off.