Page 6 of Beautiful Madness

“Do you want to get cleaned upbefore…” My mother hesitated. “Before we talk?”

I took a drink of the coffee,then sat the cup carefully on the table. Finally, I looked at her. “No. I justwant to get this over with.”

She nodded.

“I’ll just…” Lucy gestured.“I’ll be waiting in the kitchen if you need me.” She glanced at Susan. “Eitherof you.”

My mother came to sit besideme. “The place is a mess,” she murmured, “but coming along nicely. It’ll be allready for you and your people very soon. We have planned a surprise for you. Itwas Lucy’s idea, really, and—”

“What happened to her?” Iinterrupted. “Let’s start with that. Is she dead?”

She folded her hands on her lapand stared down at them, silent. I studied her, realizing suddenly that shelooked older than she had a week ago. Wolves didn’t age like humans, but sheseemed defeated. Exhausted. Lines radiated from the corners of her eyes, andher skin was dull and dry. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and itdidn’t look like it’d seen a comb for a couple of days.

Tears leaked uninterrupted fromher eyes as she huddled there on the sofa, her tiny body so unlike mine that Iwondered how I hadn’t seen it before. She was minuscule, I was tall. There wasnothing in our faces that a person could point to and say, “Oh, you have yourmother’s nose,” or “I can see where you get that smile!”

I resembled my father, but onlya little bit. “I look like her, don’t I?” I said, suddenly wanting more thananything to see a picture. “My mother?”

She flinched but nodded. “Shewas…so beautiful. And she was so deadly.”

“Was?”

She swallowed hard and finallylooked at me. “She’s dead, honey. She died on the day I brought you home.”

Ash climbed into my lap, and Iheld him to me like a lifeline. “How?”

“As you know, your father was…”She shrugged, then hurried on. “He was unfaithful to me. He swore it onlyhappened once. I believed him until…” Again, she shrugged. “I believed himbecause I needed so badly to believe him. He said he’d made a terrible mistake,and now he couldn’t untangle himself from a very dangerous woman. And thatwoman had gotten pregnant and now had a helpless child. His child. Shecontrolled him, that…woman.”

“Was she a wolf?”

Her lips tightened and her gazeslid away from me. “No. She wasn’t a wolf.” She darted her tongue out to wether lips. “She abused you, Kaity. I know you don’t remember much and what youcould remember was darkened for your own good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your father thought it best,”she whispered, “to protect your mind. After I brought you home, he found an oldwitch who covered your mind with a blood spell. You forgot certain things.”

“He had my mind altered to makeme forget my mother,” I said flatly.

She shook her head. “No, notreally. He had your mind altered to make you forget her death.”

“I saw it?”

“Yes.”

“Well…what happened? She wasmurdered so you and he brought me to live with you? Why wouldn’t you have justtold me that I was adopted? Whyhideeverything?”

“You went mad,” she said,putting her stare back on me. It did not waver. “You were a wild creature who’dlost her mind, and we were told that if the spell broke, if you remembered, youwould regress into that madness. Your mind was twisted not only by her but bywhat you saw. And,” she whispered, “by what you are.”

I shook my head once, hard, asa hazy, dark memory tried to float to the surface. I was terrified to remember.I knew there was madness waiting. I hadalwaysknown that. I could feelit beneath layers and layers of cotton. It had been buried alive but had neverdied, and it had never stopped struggling. Never stopped trying to fight itsway free.

“Tell me,” I said, anyway.“Tell me everything. I have the right to know.”

“Kaity,” she whispered, thenshe straightened her spine and began to talk. I discovered the truth, though bythe end, I wished fervently that I hadn’t.

Chapter Four

“Her name was Victoria,” shesaid. “And she was…bad. That’s the only way I can describe her. That your fatherleft you with her during the first few years of your life was one thing I neverforgave him for. I forgave him for his cheating, but I never forgave him forleaving you with her.

“The day I took you,” shecontinued, after pausing to gather herself, “I went there to confront her.”Then she paused and straightened her shoulders. “No. I went there to kill her.I’d been secretly watching her for weeks, terrified to make a move, terrifiednot to. I saw what she was doing to you, a helpless little girl, a baby. Noteven your father dared do a damn thing, because he was so afraid of her.”