Page 67 of On the Wild Side
“Nah, they won’t hurt you as long as you’re a good girl.”
It doesn’t sound nice when he says it.
“I want my mom.”
“I’m right here.”
I spin, but it’s not my mom standing behind me. It’s Nate’s, and she’s holding Daisy, but it’s Daisy from when she was a baby.
“Give me my daughter.”
“No,” she says and kisses Daisy’s head, leaving black marks where her lips were. “I don’t think I will. She’s mine. She’smydaughter.”
“No, she’s not.” I spin back to where Nate was, but now he’s hanging from a rope, his eyes unseeing as he stares my way, and I shriek before turning back to his mother. “I just want my baby.”
“You don’t deserve her,” she says, still kissing her and leaving black stains on Daisy’s skin. “You never did. I’ll raise her better than you can. I can give hereverything.And what do you have? Huh? Poor little thing, you don’t have anything. No family. No money. You clean houses and probably fuck the men who pay you, don’t you? Whores don’t deserve babies.”
“I’m not,” I cry, reaching for my daughter, but she’s suddenly farther away, and I can’t reach her. I can’t run fast enough to catch them, like my feet are stuck in the sand. “Give her back to me.”
I’m trying to run down the hallway, and sometimes, she’ll stick her head around one of the doorways and laugh, then disappear again. I can hear Daisy crying for me. Wailing and sobbing, as if she’s being hurt, and it tears me apart.
“Daisy! Mama’s coming.”
“You’ll never see her again, you whore.”
“Not a whore,” I mutter as I continue to fight against my heavy feet, trying to walk, fighting to find my daughter. “Need my baby. Daisy! Daisy!”
There’s so much sinister laughter that I can’t hear Daisy anymore. It’s so loud, echoing off the walls of the long hallway, and now it’s all starting to fill with water.
Daisy can’t swim! She’s just a baby.
Oh, God.
The water rises and rises until I have to swim to keep going because it’s over my head. Something grips onto my leg and tugs me under the water, still laughing at me. I tug free and pull myself into one of the rooms, and I can see Daisy, just floating in the water, blinking as she watches me.
“Baby! I’m here. I’ll get you.”
But then she’s snatched away, and I can’t stay above the water.
“Daisy!”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BRADY
“DAISY!” Abbi is screaming and thrashing out in bed, and no matter what I do, I can’t get her to calm down. It’s the most terrifying, helpless feeling I’ve ever had in my goddamn life.
With my heart in my throat, I run my hand down her back.
“Baby,” I croon, trying to sound calm, but I feel like I’m going to come out of my skin. “Abbi, wake up. Daisy is safe. Wake up, honey. Abs, I need you to wake up.”
She jolts and whips around to stare at me with wide, horror-filled eyes.
“I want my baby.”
“Hey.” I reach for her, but she jerks out of my grasp and tears my heart out with her. I don’teverwant her to be afraid of me. “Daisy is safe at Erin and Rem’s house. Remember? She’s just a mile away.”
“I want to see her right now.Right now.”