Read Online Best Girl by Sylvia Warsh - Free Book Online

od’d because you were there.”
    â€œBetter leave things alone, Amanda.”
    â€œDid you help her od? Were you there?”
    Something changed in her eyes. I had a sense she was giving up.
    â€œDid you kill her?”
    Shelley hung her head. She swallowed. “Once a user, always a user,” she said. “Didn’t take much.”
    My heart fell. I wanted her to deny it.
    â€œShe was no good, Amanda. She was trying to shake me down. Said she’d go to the cops and tell her lies if I didn’t give her money.”
    â€œI feel sick,” I said. I went into the kitchen in case I had to throw up. She followed me.
    â€œWhat could she tell the cops?” I said, standing near the sink.
    â€œAncient history. Forget it.”
    â€œTell me or I’m leaving.” I looked at her. She knew I meant for good.
    She stared at me, her eyes big and round. “It was…about your father and me…”
    I swallowed and stared at her. Yeah, Shelley had been hot twenty years ago, but I hadn’t expected this. “You…slept with my father?”
    â€œIt wasn’t like that…” She took a breath. “One day Freddy came home early. I was there alone with you. He was something, your dad. He had a way about him—I can’t explain. We…we hit it off. I was a knock-out in those days. Carol wasn’t enough for him.”
    I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to hear.
    She rubbed her eyes. “But then, after a while, I wasn’t enough for him either. He was always looking for something… new. I was so nuts about him. I thought we’d get married.”
    She licked her lips. “One day out of the blue he said he didn’t want to see me anymore.”
    â€œYou were the neighbor who told the cops they fought all the time.”
    â€œMen are such stupid romantics. He said he still loved her. He didn’t even look at me when I talked to him.”
    So he was leaving all those other women behind for my mother. We would’ve been a family again.
    I prayed I was wrong. “What happened?”
    She covered her eyes with her hand. “I was hurting so much. It made me crazy. He threw me away. Like I was nothing.”
    â€œIt was you …”
    â€œNo! You don’t understand. I loved him. I never meant to…”
    She leaned forward and started to whisper, like someone else could hear. “I’m not a bad person. I was so desperate…That night, it was so cold. I waited outside for him with my winter jacket on. Honestly, I just wanted to scare him. I told him I was going to kill Carol. So I brought the knife.”
    I gasped and she looked at me as if she saw something different in me. My mother?
    â€œOh no, I never would’ve hurt her, I’d never…”
    â€œYou were wearing gloves! That’s why there were no fingerprints.”
    She turned away and stared into space. “When he thought I was going after Carol—he just went wild! He tried to grab the knife and we struggled and…I just… I didn’t mean…” She leaned back, pale.
    I closed my eyes and covered my mouth with my hands. It was some kind of instinct to keep the scream from coming out and breaking me apart. The room got very close and I could hardly breathe. The old Shelley would’ve put her arm around my shoulder to comfort me. I opened my eyes to see if I still recognized her. She was leaning against the counter, staring at the steak knives that stuck out of the wooden stand. She was close enough to reach one.
    â€œYou going to kill me too?”
    She put her hand up to her forehead. “What?”
    â€œAll these years you pretended to love me.”
    Tears filled her eyes. “No, baby. I always loved you. You were the best thing that ever happened to me. You were his. I had part of him with me. I’m not a strong person. I didn’t have the guts to confess and go to jail. I felt terrible