The Life: Sacrifice (The Life 3)

Why isn’t the phone working? It can’t be; did Felix up and leave? No, that doesn’t make sense. He has a business here; everything he knows is here. And besides, he’d never sell the house he’d once shared with Adrienne. And what about Victoria? Why hasn’t she come to see about me?

I hope she’s not doing anything stupid while I’m gone. I know without me there to rein her in, things could get out of hand. I have a lot of cleaning up to do once I get out of here, but I’m pretty certain I can get out of all of it.

But if Victoria acts up with Felix around, if he should see her true colors, that would do us more harm. I’m worried sick and getting sicker by the day at the thought of what’s going on with her. She doesn’t do well under pressure, and things can get pretty out of hand if things don’t go her way.

My nerves jangled at the thought of what could be going on out there without me there to supervise, and I almost screamed the place down. It doesn’t make sense that Felix hadn’t come to see me, that there wasn’t a lawyer anywhere willing to work with me; I don’t buy that for a second.

Could he be planning to leave me? Has he finally bought into that kid’s words? Damn brat, why is he poking around in my life anyway? Because of that little twit, no doubt, and the lies she’s told. Did he say something to Felix? What could he have said? Calm down, Becky; he doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. He can’t.

But he’d learned so much in just a few short weeks. The reminder had my blood running cold. I knocked against the bars and called out to the guard but to no avail. I was lucky enough to get the one phone call and knew there would be no more forthcoming for the rest of the day. All I have to look forward to is the stale slop they’ll serve for dinner and staring at the four walls.

I tried pacing to ease my mind, but that only seemed to make me more agitated. My mind, as it had done the last few days in here, kept going back to the past, to the life I’d built. So what I’d put my daughter ahead of someone else’s, what mother in the world wouldn’t have done the same?

Was it so wrong to want the best for my own kid? To want to give her the life she deserved? It’s not my fault that things went the way they did. That little bitch was too snooty, just like her mother, and too distrusting of me in the beginning. If I hadn’t put a wedge between her and her father, there would’ve been no place for my daughter in his life.

All her sniveling over her mother’s death had taken up his time back then, leaving Victoria and me out in the cold. I had to do something, didn’t I? Even with Adrienne gone, she still hung over everything like a specter, and with her mourning daughter there, a constant reminder, there wasn’t much else I could do.

If I’d been thinking, I would’ve convinced Felix that she’d been having an affair. That would’ve soured his great love for sure. He would’ve believed me too because she and I were friends. Maybe it’s not too late…

No, he’d never believe me now, not with everything else that’s going on. I must get out of here; I have to get back home where I can work my magic and turn things around. Things had been going so well. Felix barely paid any attention at home, which suited me fine. He trusted me to run the household, which I was perfect at because I’d listened to his wife go on and on for months about their perfect life.

She had no idea that I was taking notes. That it was through her that I learned all his likes and dislikes. That it was because of her, a picture had started to form in my head. A life of parties and shopping trips out of town, rubbing elbows with the rich, and being able to afford anything I wanted, like sending my daughter to the top private school in the nation where she would be in close contact with the offspring of the wealthy, upping her chances of marrying into one of those families, and being set for life.

Why shouldn’t we both have a life like that? Why shouldn’t my daughter be afforded the same opportunities as hers? No matter what anyone says, I won’t accept that I’ve done anything wrong. It’s not my fault. I tried, didn’t I? I tried to be her mother, but it was she who rejected me at every turn. I did what I had to, to stake my claim as the woman of the house. If I hadn’t, her wimp of a father would’ve let her rule the nest out of guilt over her dead mother.