Splintered (21 page)

“You
will
go to school this morning, young lady, and that’s final.” Lily was done coddling Maddy. “You’ve got to start facing your problems. You can’t run away every time the going gets tough.”

“Clichés, that’s what you’re giving me? ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ Great idea, Mom. Next time the kids shout that I’m a lying whore, I’ll just say, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.’ I’m sure that’ll stop them.”

“It’s
one
news program. At five o’clock on a Sunday night. How many teenagers are watching the news on their day off from school?”

“You can bet their parents watched. All over town, ears perked up the second they heard the teaser promoting an exclusive interview with the Temple Terrace girl at the center of a scandal. The damn station’s been running promos for the spot since Saturday night.”

Lily didn’t have the energy to reprimand Maddy for her language. “Go to school today, and I promise . . . I
promise
, I will get a hold of your father. I’ll make sure he spends time with you.”

“Like that’ll work.”

“This time it will. I promise not to screw it up, not to say anything that will antagonize him. I realize now how much you need to see him. If he dodges my calls, I don’t care if I have to fly out to Sacramento to one of his stupid meetings. I will make this happen for you.”

Lily’s stomach lurched when she saw the look of hope that filled her daughter’s eyes.

How will I ever make good on that promise?

Lily grabbed her purse off the kitchen counter and fished out a couple of pills, swallowed them dry. She wondered if she pull this off? She didn’t know how much more disappointment her daughter could take.

Without another word, Maddy turned and headed down the hallway.

“Don’t think I’m going to put up with a repeat performance of last night, young lady!” The previous evening, Maddy had locked her bedroom door and turned up the stereo full blast. “You’d better be ready for school in ten minutes!”

Lily looked around the empty living room, wondering what to do next. She’d gotten up early to make sure Maddy went to school, but she didn’t need to be to work for another four and a half hours. She groaned at the thought of having to get in the shower, put on a fresh pair of clothes, and head to the craft store to pretend like her life wasn’t falling apart.

After the segment aired last night, Detective Wallace had called to ask what Lily had been thinking by letting Maddy appear on TV. Of course, he hadn’t used those exact words, but he might as well have. It would have saved a whole lot of beating around the bush.

He’d said it was the worst thing they could have done. The case had faded from the public spotlight, so the State Attorney hadn’t felt pressured to file charges against Maddy. But he couldn’t promise what would happen now.

He’d demanded to know how Lily could even attempt to justify why she’d allowed Maddy to do the interview. At the time, her instincts had screamed at her, telling her what a horrible idea caving in to Maddy’s pleas would be. But Lily just wanted all the months of ugly words and hateful looks to disappear and to once again make her daughter happy. To bring a smile to the face that so often wore a look of misery.

Lily knew how difficult it was when you felt like you had no control over your life. And right now, Maddy had none. Every decision her parents made had been thrust upon her.

Who am I to deny my daughter a chance at taking control back? If Maddy hadn’t done it this way, she would have just found a more destructive alternative.

Lily hadn’t seen the point of trying to explain herself to Detective Wallace. He already thought she was a terrible mother, so what did it matter? Since her actions had earned her the bad mother badge, she figured she might as well accept the shame of wearing it.

Harder, though, was the call that had come five minutes later from Emma Parker. The woman didn’t even pretend niceties. She’d gone right for the jugular.

“How on God’s green earth could you think subjecting a fifteen-year-old girl to a pack of glorified paparazzi would be a good idea?”

“Hello to you too, Emma. I take it you saw Maddy on the news.”

“You bet your ass I did. So answer me. Why’d you let her do it?”

“Don’t you dare judge me. You haven’t been around. You don’t know what it’s been like. The hell Maddy’s been going through. Yes, she made a mistake lying about the abduction, but you have no idea what those kids in that school have put her through because of it.”

Lily had wondered if she should tell Emma about the dog shit those asshole kids dumped all over Maddy’s head. The school counselor had called to inform Lily about the incident, but she knew her daughter would be mortified if she discovered her mother had found out, much less turned around and told the story to Emma.

“You should’ve seen how Maddy pleaded with me,” Lily said. “She only wanted a chance to set the record straight. To give a word of encouragement to other kids who are getting bullied.”

“I didn’t see anything like that in the news report.”

“Of course not. Those bastards cut out all the parts that portrayed Maddy in a good light. They left out her heartfelt apology for making up the story, as well as her plea to all the bullies out there, asking them to stop their hurtful behavior. Instead, that damn news reporter turned it all around on Maddy and ended up
leading
the group of bullies by taking his own shots.”

“I don’t know what to say, Lily.”

“An apologetic teenager doesn’t do much for the ratings. They edited the piece to make Maddy look like a self-absorbed brat. How can they get away with this? Don’t we have any recourse?”

“Sure, if you want to fight a court battle against their team of lawyers. You could sue the station for libel, but going into this thing they knew you wouldn’t. I’m sorry, but one look at your house told them you didn’t have the financial means to take them on. They could report anything they wanted and not worry about any blowback.”

“Aarrgghh!” Lily cried out, angry at the crappy hand life had dealt her. She fought the tears welling up. “I thought I was doing what was best for Maddy. With everything that’s been happening these past few months, she’s been stripped powerless. She begged me to let her tell her side of the story. I thought taking control over the situation would be a good step toward rebuilding her self-esteem. Instead, it landed the final crushing blow.”

She’d spent another five minutes on the phone with Emma, then begged off. Emotionally drained, she couldn’t deal with person after person lining up to remind her of what she’d always feared—that she wasn’t cut out to be a mother.

Lily looked at the digital clock on the end table—6:28 a.m. Almost fifteen minutes had passed since Maddy had gone back into her bedroom. Lily walked down the hallway, preparing herself for another battle when Maddy walked out of her room dressed for school and with her backpack slung over her shoulder. Without a word, she walked past Lily and out the front door.

Guess Tom was right about me.

Over the years, he’d repeatedly questioned Lily’s parenting decisions. If she grounded Maddy for getting a bad grade, he’d say she was being too harsh. If she gave her a pass for coming home late, Tom would give Lily grief for letting Maddy off too easy. Lily had become so confused and self-conscious, it had been easier to step away and let him take over the discipline. The more she thought about it, the more she realized backing off had caused her to resort to her own mother’s parenting style. Over the past couple of years, she’d let Maddy grow up on autopilot. Now it seemed the plane was about to crash.

Emma wanted to get a hold of Maddy early to set up an outing for them later that evening. It might give the girl something to look forward to, make the transition of having to go back to class a little easier. She knew she had a tight window to catch her before school, so Emma had set her alarm for 6:30 a.m. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes while waiting for Maddy to answer the phone.

“Hello?” Maddy said. “Aunt Emma, is that you?”

Emma couldn’t stifle the yawn rising up. Instead of saying hello, she yawned in Maddy’s ear. “Sorry. I don’t know how you do it, getting up this early.” Emma normally didn’t have to go into work until nine o’clock.

“Not willingly, that’s for sure.” Maddy’s voice sounded sad, and there was a heavy dose of anger mixed in. “What do you need, Aunt Emma?”

“I know you’re mad at me. I’ve been making lots of promises lately and not following through on any of them. I’m sorry we couldn’t get together last night. I know you wanted to hang out and watch TV at my place.” Emma thought it best to keep the conversation light. She didn’t want to talk about the interview over the phone.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Maddy said hastily. “I know you’re busy.”

“I have been. But that’s no excuse. Do you mind if I come over after school today? Hang out, perhaps take you out to dinner?”

Maddy didn’t answer right away. Emma wondered if she was too angry to accept her apology, or if her hesitation had more to do with Maddy’s reluctance to talk about the interview. Emma decided to push a little harder.

“What about Antonio’s? It’s your favorite.”

“Okay, I guess.”

“Great.” Emma said with more enthusiasm than she felt. It was time they had a hard conversation. Emma was always telling herself she would’ve been a better mother than Lily. It was time to prove it.

“I gotta go,” Maddy said. “I see my bus coming.”

“Sure. See you later. And Maddy—keep your chin up.”

After Emma had watched last night’s television interview, she’d raged, pacing tracks into the carpet. She’d picked up the phone to call Lily, but Ben had grabbed the phone away from her.

“Hey, what’d you do that for?” she asked him.

“Take a minute to cool down first. Shouts and accusations over the phone ended your friendship in the first place.”

Emma didn’t want to listen to rational suggestions. She wanted Ben to jump on her bandwagon and help rip Lily apart. Emma would never have let Maddy end up in this situation.

Like a dog with a bone, Emma wouldn’t let it go. She grabbed the phone back from Ben and called Lily, guns blazing. All through the conversation, Emma had held on tight to her anger. Until Lily explained Maddy’s original intent about doing the news report. Emma couldn’t fault the girl for trying to stop the bullying. The Eastins had never had any interaction with the media. They didn’t realize what jackals they could be. She finally understood that if Lily had any inkling of what was going to happen, she would’ve refused Maddy’s pleas to be on TV.

Emma also realized she couldn’t lay the blame solely on Lily—she was also culpable. Through the whole ordeal, she hadn’t been there for Maddy, hadn’t been the shoulder the girl needed to lean on. Emma tried to rationalize that thought away, telling herself that Maddy had been pulling away from her ever since she’d reached thirteen, had gravitated closer to her friends and further from the adults in her life. Emma had used the excuse of normal teenage behavior to spend less and less time with the girl.

She admitted, though, that even this past week with everything that had gone on, she still hadn’t put forth much effort to reach out, only a few phone calls here and there. Emma’s lack of attention contributed to Maddy’s current position at the center of a media circus. Channel 3 was just the tip of the iceberg. More stations would surely follow their lead, trying to get the Eastins on camera again by handing out promises of letting them set the record straight.

Emma had asked how she could help Lily last night when they talked.

“Can you come over to our house after school?” Lily asked. “I have to work until seven. With the fragile state Maddy’s in, I don’t want to leave her alone.”

Emma had taken a quick inventory of what she’d thought her Monday might look like. She’d just finished wrapping a big red bow on her murder case, so except for some final finishing touches on paperwork, her schedule looked remarkably clear. She still had two open cases she was working on, but things could be rearranged.

“Sure. What time?”

“She usually texts me around three to tell me she’s gotten home all right. Is that good for you?”

“Sure. She and I can hang out at the house and talk, then go out for dinner. If she doesn’t have a ton of homework, we won’t hurry home. If that’s okay with you? It’ll also give you time to decompress.”

Emma heard the relief in Lily’s sigh. She was probably thankful to finally have help, an ally in the fight to save Maddy.

Hank sat in the darkness of his van, watching as the strawberry blonde left her house. Last night, he’d scrutinized the news report and researched Maddy online to find out everything he could about her. Her house hadn’t been too difficult to find either—it was the only pink one on the street.

He took a swallow of his lukewarm coffee, then resumed his thumb drumming against the steering wheel. He knew he should be exhausted since he’d only gotten six hours of sleep in the last forty-eight, but he was wired. He couldn’t remember when he’d felt so alive. Every nerve ending crackled with electricity. The howling of the wolves had finally stopped echoing through his mind. Hank had joined the pack and was now on the prowl.

He watched Maddy walk down her front porch steps and hop off the second-to-last step to avoid a puddle. She shifted her backpack to the other shoulder, then reached around and fished her phone out of her back pocket. Bathed in the murky glow of her front porch light, he watched her look at the phone. She eventually put it up to her ear and continued walking down the sidewalk. Shiny rhinestone hearts were emblazoned on the back pockets of her jeans. He smiled when he realized she looked even more petite in person than on camera.

He’d been sitting in his van since 5:30 a.m., watching the neighborhood. His vehicle blended in well in the blue-collar area.

Nothing to see here, folks, just another work van parked on the street.

A few neighbors had rolled out their garbage cans to the curb, then jumped in their vehicles in a morning rush. No one had even giving him a passing glance. Some had already missed the 6:15 a.m. garbage truck that had come barreling by minutes earlier. They’d have to wait until Thursday to try their luck again. Hank had researched everything, leaving nothing to chance.