“Is that true?” Jeanette asked Isabella.
“I guess,” was all Isabella would say on the matter.
“Why are you doing these things?” Jeanette asked her, clearly perplexed and horrified as to why her young daughter would deliberately kill people.
“What do you care? You aren’t even my real mother!” Isabella became enraged, as if she just realized why she was there in the first place.
“What the hell is going on here?” a strange male voice bellowed.
Chapter 24
Everyone turned to see Donald Sharpe walk up behind them.
“Donny, what are you doing here?” Catherine asked him, while everyone watched, momentarily forgetting the scene at the edge of the cliff.
“I heard that you found our daughter. Alive. Then someone said there was a problem with her out here. So I came to see what was happening. Is that our daughter?” he asked, pointing to Isabella.
“How did you hear that?” Catherine was completely taken off guard. She had told no one that she had found their daughter.
“This island ain’t that big, darlin’. I think everyone knows by now,” he replied.
“I don’t have time to deal with you right now. Isabella is freaking out over there because of me and is in a very dangerous position. We are trying to calm her down and we can deal with the rest of it elsewhere.” Catherine wanted nothing more than to get rid of Donald and concentrate on her daughter’s dangerous predicament.
“Catherine, I need to know what is going on!” Donald said loud enough to make Isabella and Jeanette turn toward him.
“Donny, please. We can talk later.” She stroked his arm in an attempt to calm him down. “That’s our daughter over there. We need to try to help her.”
They all turned toward Isabella.
“It’s true? We really do have a daughter?” Donald looked Catherine in the eyes as he realized that little girl over there was his.
“Yes, it’s true. We can talk about it later, okay?”
“Okay,” he replied.
All attention then turned to the duo standing by the ledge.
“Sweetheart, it’s okay. We just want to help you.” Jeanette reached over to comfort her daughter and Isabella pulled back away from her.
Isabella looked over at all the people watching her intently. She saw the woman standing there that Jeanette had said was her mother.
“You’re my real mother, aren’t you?” Isabella asked Catherine directly.
Catherine looked over at Jeanette who nodded her head.
“Yes, I’m the one that gave birth to you. But honey, Jeanette is your mother, not me.” Catherine was trying her best to sound calm.
“No she’s not!” Isabella looked at Jeanette and scowled. “And now you don’t want me either,” she said to Catherine.
“It’s not that, honey. I do want you. Very much. But Jeanette and Jacob are your parents. They have loved you your entire life. They are the ones that you should be with. I’m just a stranger to you.” Catherine had no idea if she was saying the right things. She had never raised a child.
“Sweetheart, I’m your mother and I love you,” Jeanette said to her.
“Shut up! You are not!”
That’s when Isabella reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a kitchen knife and pointed it at Jeanette. There was a murmur from the small crowd.
“Izzy, what are you doing?” Jeanette asked. “You need to stop this right now.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. You are not my mother.” When Isabella said that, her voice became calm, low, and methodical.
Isabella shifted her stance and circled Jeanette just enough that Jeanette now had her back to the cliff. She didn’t even realize that she had moved. She was watching her daughter’s face intently and trying to gauge exactly what she intended to do with the knife she was holding out. Could her own daughter actually hurt her? Did she intend to stab her? Or was she just venting because of all the trauma of the day? Jeanette couldn’t be sure of any of it. This little girl in front of her was not her daughter. Not the beautiful, sweet, chatty girl that she had raised and loved for the last ten years. This was not the same girl.
The girl standing in front of her was hurt. Yes, of course she was hurt. But it was more than that. She had just confessed to purposely killing two people. The third one was probably an accident. Though she was the one that caused it.
“This is where Beth went over the edge, you know,” Isabella told Jeanette. Then she looked up at her father with a small, deliberate smile. It sent a chill up his spine.
“Isabella, why are you doing this?” Jeanette asked her. “I know you. You didn’t hurt anyone. Why are you saying that you did?”
“Stop asking me questions. I don’t want to answer anymore questions.”
Isabella took a step forward, knife still pointed straight out in front of her. Jeanette took a step back. She needed to put as much distance between herself and the knife, just in case Isabella decided to strike.
Out of the corner of her eye Jeanette could see the sheriff slowly making his way toward Isabella. He was behind her and the girl didn’t realize that he was closing in. Jeanette then made the mistake of looking up at the sheriff, over Isabella’s shoulder. Isabella turned quickly, saw Rex closing in, then turned back and stepped closer to her mother, the knife only inches from her stomach. It all happened so fast that Jeanette didn’t have a chance to react.
“Don’t come any closer, sheriff, or I will kill her. I mean it.” Isabella’s eyes never left Jeanette’s as she spoke.
What could Rex do but comply? If he continued forward, he could not live with himself if tragedy struck, due to his careless behavior.
“Okay, little lady, I’m backing up now,” he told her quietly as he carefully stepped back a few paces.
“Izzy, please put the knife down. We can go over to the bench and talk. Just you and me. Give me a chance to explain everything.” Jeanette was starting to sound desperate. She knew she was dangerously close to the edge. She didn’t dare look down.
“No. I don’t want to talk. You aren’t my mother. And she” gesturing the knife toward where Catherine stood, “doesn’t want me. So, I have no one. You all lied to me. I hate all of you.”
“Izzy, we did it for you,” Jeanette tried to explain. “We love you and just wanted you to have a normal family.”
“Just shut up.”
Isabella took another step toward Jeanette, causing her to back up one more step. Without looking down, Jeanette could feel the ground beneath her feet was softer, more forgiving, just like the very edge of a cliff. She knew that she was at the end of the line. Jeanette had to summon all of her inner strength to stand there and not panic. She felt that panicking was not going to help the tenuous situation she had found herself in.
“Isabella, honey, can I come over there and talk to you?” Catherine jumped in, afraid that if she didn’t, it would be too late. She felt that she needed to try to do something. None of this would have happened if she hadn’t shown up on the island, and she felt some guilt for that.
Isabella turned toward Catherine, but didn’t answer her. Catherine decided to take her chances as she walked over, tentatively, and stood next to Jeanette.
“Sweetheart,” Catherine began. “We just want what is best for you. Can we go over there and all talk about it? Please?”
“No. I don’t want to talk about it. You all lied to me and now no one wants me.” Tears were forming in Isabella’s eyes.
“That’s not true. We both love you,” Catherine said as she reached toward Isabella, hoping to disarm her.
But, it didn’t work. Isabella was on guard and wasn’t about to give in to the people who had all lied to her. Her entire life was a lie.
“This is all your fault!” Isabella told her two mothers. Then, without warning, she thrust the knife at Catherine and pierced her stomach in one quick jab.
Catherine let out a wail as she grabbed her mid s
ection. Blood began running between her fingers and down her yellow summer dress. Everyone watched in horror as she slowly fell to her knees, then down on the ground, face up. She was unconscious and bleeding badly.
“I hate both of you and I don’t care if you die!”
That was the last thing Isabella said to her mothers as she lifted the knife high in the air with the horrible intention of finishing Catherine off.
However, Isabella didn’t get very far. Just at the instant that she started the knife in a downswing toward Catherine’s unconscious body, she heard the sound of heavy footsteps crunching gravel and sand. Isabella turned just in time to see Donald sprinting toward her. With no time to react, Donald ran into her, full force, wrapped his arms around Isabella just as he made contact with her, and stuck his heel into the earth to stop his forward motion.
It didn’t work. He was moving too fast and he couldn’t stop. The two of them, father and daughter, flew off the edge of the cliff. Not a sound came out of either one of them during the inevitable fall to their deaths.
Jeanette let out a blood curdling scream as it all played out in slow motion in front of her. She felt herself slipping as the soft edge of the cliff began to give way. For just a moment she resigned herself to the same fate as her precious daughter. At the last possible moment she felt someone grab her arm and pull her to safety. It was Jacob. She hugged him tightly and sobbed into his shoulder as Sawyer ran over and cried with them.
The sheriff, who had witnessed everything, held up his hand to stop anyone that had the nerve to look over the edge of the cliff. No one had moved a step though. No one wanted to see what laid on the rocks below.
Rex walked over himself and took in the macabre sight over the edge of the cliff. It was the second time in the past few weeks that he had had to take in that gut wrenching scene. He had just witnessed the worst thing he would ever see in all his decades in law enforcement. He prayed that he would never have to do it again.
“Someone call 911,” Rex ordered in the general direction of the group. His voice was low and spiritless.
The 911 call wasn’t for Donald and Isabella. It was too late for them. But Catherine was still alive and needed immediate medical help.
“Mary, can you please come see what you can do until the paramedics arrive?” Rex asked her.
Before the sheriff finished his sentence, Mary ran to Catherine and took charge.
“Someone get me some towels!” she yelled, “and a blanket!”
The group went scrambling. Within seconds someone handed her what she needed. Mary put pressure on the wound and did her best to stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down. There was so much blood, more than Mary had ever seen in her life. Surprisingly, the sight of all that blood didn’t bother her. She just got in there and did what needed to be done, and was very calm during the whole ordeal. Though Catherine was out cold, Mary spoke to her in a gentle tone, and told her everything would be all right.
Within a few short minutes, but an eternity to Mary, the ambulance showed up and the paramedics took over. Thankfully Catherine was still alive, though barely. Piper hugged her sister as they watched the ambulance drive away. She had never been so proud of Mary in her life.
The next morning, Catherine awoke from surgery to find the Hale family and Sheriff Rex waiting to speak with her. They told her what had happened with Donald and Isabella going over the cliff, and how Donald saved Catherine’s life by sacrificing his own. Catherine was devastated. She lost the father of her child and a daughter she never really knew, all at once. Nothing would ever be the same for her again.
After all the questions had been answered and they were ready to leave, Catherine asked Jeanette to stay behind.
“Come here,” Catherine held out her hands to Jeanette, once the men had all left the room.
Jeanette walked over, took Catherine’s hands, and sat down on the hospital bed next to her.
“I’m very sorry that everything turned out the way it did,” Catherine said, with tears flowing freely down her face. “If I hadn’t shown up here, then none of this would have happened. I feel responsible.”
“No, don’t say that. None of this is your fault,” Jeanette comforted her. “I started all of this by taking a baby that wasn’t mine to take. I had no right. If I hadn’t done that, she would have grown up with you and things would have been completely different. Perhaps she would have been a happier child, and maybe she wouldn’t have hurt anyone. I just don’t know. It’s something we will never know for sure. But, you can’t blame yourself for any of it.”
“Well, thank you for that,” Catherine replied, tightening her grip on Jeanette’s hands, in a comforting gesture.
“And,” Jeanette continued, “no matter what kind of man Donald was, he saved my life. And yours. I will be eternally grateful to him for that. I will love and miss Isabella every day for the rest of my life. But I know that there was probably no other way for yesterday to play out. It was never going to end well for any of us there at that cliff.”
Nothing else needed to be said. They both knew in their hearts that if Donald hadn’t done what he did, when he did it, that neither of them would probably be there. The two mothers cried in each other’s arms for a child they would never hold again.
***
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
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Michelle
Storm Preview
Storm on Wildflower Island
Wildflower Mystery Series - Book 3
CHAPTER 1 Preview
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“Oh, hey sweetheart. How are you doing?” The look on Cecily’s face as she spoke to her friend, Jeanette, said it all. It was a sad, pathetic sort of look. The kind of look one gives to a friend that just lost everything.
Jeanette’s daughter, Isabella, had a lot of emotional problems. She seemed normal at first, then things changed. Drastically changed. When it was discovered that Isabella, at only ten years old, was killing residents of Wildflower Island, Jeanette was devastated. Of course she was. Then the unthinkable happened. Isabella’s biological father, in a heroic effort to save someone that Isabella was threatening, plummeted off a cliff one evening, and took Jeanette’s beautiful daughter with him.
Despite the terrible crimes Isabella had committed, Jeanette was so wracked with grief over the loss of her daughter, that she barely got out of bed for weeks. Once she decided to venture out into the world, she made her way to the Wildflower Inn to see her friend, Cecily. Though as soon as she saw the look on Cecily’s face, Jeanette immediately regretted her attempt at human contact and wished she hadn’t left the safety and solitude of her home. For a brief moment, she contemplated turning and running for the exit, but she told herself that if she didn’t do it right then, she might never leave her home again. Taking a deep breath, she looked into the sad face of her friend.
“I’m doing the best I can, you know?” Jeanette replied.
“Yeah, I know,” Cecily told her. “Can I get you a drink?” she asked as Jeanette sat down on an empty barstool.
“Sure. Just a diet cola please.”
“Coming right up.”
Cecily poured the cola and leaned across the bar to talk to her friend. She looked around before whispering. “It’s really good to see you out. Wanna go get some dinner later?”
“Um no,” Jeanette replied, taking a long drag on her straw. The refreshing cola felt nice
and cool going down. “I just came by to tell you something. Jacob and I are moving off the island.”
Cecily stood up abruptly, eyes wide. “What? Why?”
“You know why.” Jeanette looked down into her glass. The shame she felt was written all over her face.
“Oh honey, you know no one blames you for the things Isabella did.” Cecily tried to put on her most sympathetic face as she brushed her long, brown hair back from her face.
“Of course they do. She’s my daughter. How could they not blame me? Besides, I can’t go anywhere on this island without people staring.”
Cecily looked up and around the dimly lit bar room of the Wildflower Inn, where she had tended bar for several years and knew most of the patrons. Quite a few eyeballs were focused on the two women.
“Oh, I see what you mean,” Cecily told her. “Look, don’t worry about those jerks. They have sad, pathetic lives, and apparently nothing better to do than focus on you and your problems.”
“What are you all staring at!” Cecily yelled around the room, to no one in particular, a bit louder than she intended. Every set of eyes dropped down to the food and drinks on the table in front of them. No one dared confront her back.
“Bunch of cowards,” Cecily told Jeanette, much quieter that time, but still loud enough for many of them to hear, as she continued glaring around the room.
Jeanette smiled at the brazenness of her friend. She wished she had more of that in herself.
“Wow, Cecily. You aren’t going to make any friends that way,” Hope chimed in as she walked into the bar, smiling.
Desperation on Wildflower Island Page 17