“No. Not gonna happen. Besides, how in the world are you going to explain where she came from? If you tell them I took her, then I will make sure everyone knows you paid me a lot of money to do so. They will also learn that I am her mother, not you.” I was desperate.
“No one will believe you. My doctor will vouch for me.”
She was still holding on to the fact that her name was on Madison’s birth certificate, not mine. I didn’t care about that anymore. I would prove Madison was mine, no matter what it took.
“You’ve heard of DNA, right?” I asked her. She was a doctor after all.
“Shut up.” She shoved me aside and reached for Madison.
Without even thinking, I grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her backward as hard as I could, causing her to stumble several feet across the floor and land face down. I jumped in between her and Madison while Sarah was recovering.
She quickly got to her feet. “Get out of my way. I’m taking her.”
“The hell you are.” I grabbed a pair of scissors that were laying on the kitchen counter and held them in front of me.
Sarah stopped dead in her tracks. “What? Are you going to stab me now?” She gave me a one sided grin. She obviously was not afraid of me as she came closer.
“You better believe it. Come one step closer. I dare you.” I tried my best to say it with confidence. I wasn’t sure it worked.
She did stop though. She looked at the scissors, then back at me, then at Madison.
“I don’t believe you have the nerve. You wouldn’t stab me in front of my daughter.” She stepped toward me.
That’s when I knew that I better act fast. It was her or me. That was clear. I lunged at her and cut her arm as she twisted away from me.
“You bitch!” she screamed as she looked at her bleeding arm.
“I told you I was serious. Stay away from my daughter. She’s mine, not yours.” I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
“You are not going to actually stab me with those things. You want to go to prison, and never see Madison again?”
“Yes, if that’s what it takes. Besides, if I let you take her, I won’t see her again anyway. So what do I have to lose?”
She hesitated another moment. She was definitely contemplating whether I had the nerve to actually stab her or not. I guess she decided to chance it because she lunged at me again. That’s when I stabbed her in the shoulder. I did that on purpose. I didn’t want to kill her. I just wanted to scare her into leaving. She dropped to the floor in pain, holding her shoulder and being very dramatic about the whole thing.
“Get me a towel, before I bleed to death!” she screamed at me.
I obeyed, hanging onto the scissors the whole time. I didn’t trust her for a second.
“Are you going to leave my house now, or not?” I held up the scissors in front of me, for emphasis.
She hesitated for just a moment, obviously contemplating the likelihood that I would actually do some real damage next time.
“Fine, I’m going. You know, you could really hurt someone with those things.”
“That’s the idea,” I replied. “Don’t ever come back. I will kill you next time.” She knew I meant it.
After she left, I quickly started cleaning up the mess before my parents arrived home to see the carnage. Even though the slice on her arm and the stab to the shoulder weren’t that bad, she was a bleeder, and it took a while to get it all cleaned up. It was amazing to me that Madison just sat there and watched the whole thing without saying a word. I was surprised that she wasn’t crying after seeing me attack the only mother she knew. But she was very calm about it all.
I knew that Madison was having a great time at our new house and my parents just adored her. I, unfortunately, was terrified the entire time we were living there. I just knew that the police were going to show up at any moment and drag me away, never to see my daughter again, especially after my encounter with Sarah. I couldn’t let that happen. Madison did not deserve that, nor did my parents. So, I took matters into my own hands and left on my own. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, because I knew I would probably never see her, or them, again. The safest place I could think to leave Madison was with my parents. I couldn’t take her with me and have her live her life on the run. That was not fair to her and no way for a little girl to live. She deserved a nice, quiet life, out of harms way.
I was positive that Sarah would never return and my parents would raise her right. I know I didn’t turn out all that great, for a few years anyway, but that was my fault, not theirs. They were good people and she would be happy and safe with them.
That night I quietly packed the few things I had, kissed my baby on the forehead for the very last time, and walked out the door.
Even though it was the hardest thing I would ever do in my entire life, in my heart I knew it was the right decision. She was safe and that’s all that mattered.
* * *
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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
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I hope you enjoyed reading A Reckless Life. I had a lot of fun writing it.
An author’s success depends on readers like you. The best way to reach more readers is to have a whole bunch of feedback. So, if you liked my book, please take just a moment to leave me a review.
You can find the review page by going to my website below and clicking on the book.
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* * *
Thank you!
Michelle
Following is the first chapter of the Wildflower Mystery Series. I hope you like it!
Secrets of Wildflower Island
Wildflower Mystery Series - Book 1
Preview
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When four teenage girls discover a body, badly beaten, a nice day at the beach goes horribly wrong. As they embark on a quest to solve the murder, they find themselves as the main suspects. The girls quickly turn on each other as they are blackmailed by an unknown person and harassed by others. Who killed the boy? Will the girls be next? This mesmerizing mystery, suspense novel will have you guessing until the end.
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CHAPTER 1
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“Where is your sister? We have something we want to talk to you about,” Mary’s father, Tim, asked her as the family sat down to have a nice lunch of fish and chips at the Wildflower Inn Cafe they owned.
“She went to the beach party,” Mary replied, propping her bare feet up on the remaining empty chair.
“I’m here, I’m here,” Piper said quickly as she ran up the wooden stairs from the beach onto the cafe’s deck. “Can we make this quick? I want to go back down to the beach party. Mary, move,” Piper said, pushing Mary’s feet off of her chair. Piper sat down and began braiding her long hair while she waited for her parents to tell them whatever it was they wanted and she could go back to having fun with her friends.
The teenage waitress took their lunch orders immediately upon them sitting down at their usual table, which interrupted their conversation. She ignored the other customers who had arrived several minutes before and were still waiting for her to address them. She was receiving irritated looks from quite a few tables, of which she was completely oblivious to. This did not go unnoticed by Tim Carmichael, Piper and Mary’s father. He ran the cafe and it was important to him that his customers were well taken care of.
“Frankie,” Tim said to their waitress, “please go help all of these nice people before you put our order in,” gesturing to the other tables. “Remember that they pay your salary. And mine.” He smiled as he said it. Tim was a pretty easy going boss.
Frankie was just 16 years old and had a head full of wild red hair. With her curves and just a few freckles on her nose, she was very cute, and a favorite of the local boys that frequented the cafe. She didn’t pay them much attention though, which drove
them even crazier. Frankie smiled back at Tim and wandered off to help the rest of her customers.
Tim Carmichael watched her walk away. He was a man, and not completely immune to the little swish in her walk, especially since she was wearing nothing but cut off jean shorts, a bikini top, and flip flops. This was the standard wear at the outdoor cafe on the beach.
Once she was out of earshot, Tim turned back to his family. He noticed that his wife, Roxanne, was watching him as he was watching Frankie. She didn’t say a word, but he could see the disapproval in her eyes. He knew that was a conversation they would be having later that night, when they were alone. He grimaced at the thought.
“As I was saying, we have something your mom and I want to talk to you about.”
He looked over at his wife again and frowned, terrified of delivering the bad news to their daughters. He knew he couldn’t avoid it though, and he knew it would hurt the girls terribly. It just broke his heart that he had to break theirs.
Piper and Mary were 15 years old and identical twins. So identical that even Tim and Roxanne had trouble sometimes telling their daughters apart. It was usually their personalities that were easily distinguishable, rather than their looks. They had long, wavy blonde hair and piercing powder blue eyes. They were the envy of every girl in school, and most of the local boys had a crush on one or both of them.
Piper was easily the more outgoing of the two. The social butterfly of the family, her father called her. Because of this, kids her age were naturally drawn to her and she had many friends. Mary was a bit more shy. Certainly not an introvert, but she did not have the fearless, outgoing personality that Piper had. When they were with a group of friends, it was always Piper holding court, while Mary stood in the background, mostly unnoticed.
“I’ll tell them,” Roxanne said to her husband, taking his hand. She saw the relief on his face as she steadied his trembling hands. “Your dad and I have decided to separate.”
Piper stopped braiding her hair and let it unravel on its own, as her hands dropped to her lap. “What do you mean?” Piper asked. She knew what separate meant, but was temporarily caught off guard.
Mary sat quietly, taking it all in. She was biting her lower lip and twisting her hair, like she did anytime she got nervous about something. She did what she usually did, she let Piper do all the talking.
“She means,” Tim responded, “that I will be moving out. For now at least. We are not talking about getting divorced right now. We just want to see how it goes.”
He knew how that must sound to the twins. ‘See how it goes?’ It sounded like they didn’t take their marriage seriously. Not seriously enough to try their best to work it out, but that wasn’t the case. They had been in marriage counseling for months and it just wasn’t getting any better. Tim knew that their troubles were mostly his fault. He liked to spend a lot of his time at the pub down the street. Though there was a bar at the inn they owned, he needed time away. Away from his wife, kids, and the constant threat of work. Because they lived at the business they owned, he could never get away from always being at work. Tim would hang out with a few friends at the pub and drink for hours. He didn’t consider himself an alcoholic, just a social drinker. He knew it was something he needed to work on. It was all on him. The two of them had decided that it was time to see if a trial separation would make any difference. Anything had to be better than the constant bickering that went on. It didn’t just stay within the walls of their house either, it extended to the streets of Sea Cove.
Tim looked around to see if anyone had heard them. He and Roxanne had owned the cafe, and the Wildflower Inn attached to it, since they first got married. It was important to him that they try to be discreet. They knew just about everyone in town and didn’t need to be the latest topic of gossip. He was almost positive that it probably didn’t matter anyway. Their fights were sometimes public. Very public. He really did love her, but Tim and Roxanne were gasoline and a lit match when they got going.
The family spent the next half hour talking about the split. The twins were understandably upset by it, but that day they were having trouble concentrating. It was the annual ‘beginning of summer’ party that the teenagers on the island threw. It was always on the first day of summer vacation and was an all day party. It lasted long into the night and Tim and Roxanne had catered the party for quite a few years. They were also the main chaperones. They didn’t know exactly how that job fell upon them, in addition to their catering duties, but it did. The parents of the kids just let the Carmichaels keep an eye on things. They were right there on the beach, so the parents figured it would be an easy job for them. However, that wasn’t the case.
No matter how much they tried, it was impossible to keep the drinking from happening. Each year, the Carmichaels ended up making most of the kids sleep it off at the inn. Girls on one floor, boys on another. They also spent the entire night awake making sure everyone stayed on their assigned floor. They were not as stupid as the drunk teenagers thought they were.
When it appeared to the twins that the conversation was over, Piper jumped in. “Can we go now? We are missing everything!”
“Yes, fine. Go,” Roxanne said, her blue eyes sparkling in the bright sunshine.
Before she finished her sentence, both girls were running for the beach. The Carmichaels couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm.
“It’s really slow here today.” Tim and Roxanne turned to see Frankie standing next to their table, looking longingly at the beach, her red hair drifting about in the breeze.
“Go,” Tim said. “We’ll clean up these dishes.”
With that, Frankie kicked off her flip flops and sauntered down the steps to the beach. Tim didn’t dare look her way.
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