Watching my mother nearly pass out from the shock, I couldn't hold back any longer. I shoved Silas aside and swung my hand at Penelope's face.
But halfway through, Silas caught my arm and pushed me. I hit the ground hard.
My hands landed in the shattered remains of a vase. Blood pooled across the floor.
Silas didn't so much as glance at the blood. A mocking smile curled at the corner of his mouth. "All I did was give you a little push, and you're already on the ground. Who's this performance for?"
"I'm not performing. I don't have any strength left..."
He wasn't listening. He'd already turned to Penelope, his voice soft with concern. "Why did you bring Hilda's mother here? She's mentally unstable. What if she'd hurt you?"
Penelope sighed. "I just felt so sorry for her mom, desperate to see her daughter. I didn't have the heart to say no."
Silas stroked her hair, his expression tender. "Penny, you're too kind. That's exactly how Hilda takes advantage of you."
But looking at my mother's glazed, unfocused eyes, I knew her condition had worsened again.
Penelope had done this on purpose.
I moved toward my mother to take her home, but she grabbed a beer bottle off the coffee table and smashed it into me.
"I'll beat you to death! How dare you throw away your dignity!"
"A worthless daughter who can't live without a man! I'll kill you!"
"Mom, I'm sorry, please snap out of it, please..."
But the sound of my voice only made her worse. Every word out of her mouth was a wish for me to die.
Silas watched me scramble around the private room, dodging her blows. He started to step in, but Penelope caught his arm.
"Silas, a mother disciplining her disobedient daughter is perfectly natural. We shouldn't interfere."
"If a little tough love sets Hildie straight, then really, it's for her own good."
Silas's raised hand froze in place, then dropped back to his side.
It didn't take long. My body gave out, and the bottle found me again and again until I was covered in blood.
I happened to be wearing red. The blood soaked into the fabric and disappeared, red swallowed by red. To Silas, it looked like my mother wasn't hitting me that hard at all.
The truth was, her mental state had been deteriorating for weeks.
The doctor had warned that she couldn't handle any kind of shock.
Otherwise she'd end up exactly like this.
Just when I thought my legs would buckle, a flicker of clarity returned to my mother's eyes.
She saw the wounds covering my body. Guilt flooded her face. She started hitting herself, clawing at her own arms.
"Hildie, Mommy shouldn't have hit you. I'm sorry."
Then she clutched her chest, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.
Watching her crumple to the floor, I screamed until my throat tore. "Mom! Hold on, please hold on. I'm taking you to the hospital."
But there was no ambulance nearby. My only hope was Silas.
I dropped to my knees in front of him. "Silas, please save my mother. She's dying. If you help her, I'll stay away from you and Penelope for good. I'll never bother you again."
Silas frowned, and for a second he looked like he might speak. Penelope cut in first.
"Silas, when I picked her mom up, she was totally fine. She even told me how great she'd been feeling."
"I think she just can't accept that Hildie works as a hostess, so she's lying there faking it."
The hesitation on Silas's face vanished. He let out a cold scoff. "Hilda, turns out your mother's just as good at putting on an act as you are. Let's see how long you two can keep it up."
He wasn't going to help. I dragged myself into the hallway and begged every person I passed to help me get my mother to a hospital.
Even when I knelt before every single person in that hallway, they looked at me like I was bad luck.
Silas couldn't stand the sight of me groveling. He let out a cold laugh.
"You're so desperate to take your mother to the hospital? Fine. I'll personally expose your little act today."
Minutes later, my mother was taken to the hospital.
The moment Silas walked through the doors, Penelope sent him off to buy water.
My mother never made it to the emergency room. She was gone before they could even try.
By the time Silas came back with the water, all he saw was me draped over the white sheet covering my mother's body, sobbing. "Mom, please don't leave me. I know I was wrong. I'm so sorry."
His pupils shook.
Penelope leaned in close and murmured beside him, "Hilda's mom is really committed to the performance. They're already at the hospital, and she's pretending to be dead? She almost had the doctors fooled."
The look in Silas's eyes went ice-cold. "Hilda, stop trying to get my attention with this pathetic act. I'm not falling for it. And I'm sick of watching you degrade yourself."
Something seized my chest so hard I couldn't breathe. "I never wanted your attention."
"My mother is dead. Why would you still say these things to me?"
Silas stared at me, his gaze cutting. "Still lying. Your mother's faking it, just like you. You're both liars."
"You're disgusting. Why don't you just go die?"
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and laughed softly. "You're right. I am disgusting. I became a hostess to save you. And now I've killed my own mother."
"So I'll give you what you want."
I pushed open the hospital window and jumped from the twenty-eighth floor.
"Hildie!"
His scream tore through the air behind me, raw and shattered.
