"Leo! He’s not breathing!"
The scream tore through the morning silence like a jagged knife.
I jolted awake, my heart hammering against my ribs.
I ran toward the dining room.
Alicia was on the floor, clutching Leo. His face was turning a terrifying shade of red. He was gasping, his small hands clawing at his throat.
"What happened?" I cried, dropping to my knees beside them.
"He ate a cookie!" Alicia shrieked, her eyes wild. "He’s allergic to peanuts! You know he’s allergic!"
She pointed a trembling finger at the plate on the table. Peanut butter cookies.
"I didn't give him that," I stammered, panic rising in my throat. "I didn't bake anything today! I just woke up!"
"Liar!" Alicia screamed. "You put them there! You tried to poison him because you hate him!"
Anthony rushed into the room, his face pale. He saw Leo gasping and immediately grabbed the EpiPen from the counter, jamming it into the boy's thigh.
Leo let out a wail, air rushing back into his lungs.
Anthony turned to me. His eyes were not human. They were the eyes of a wolf looking at a wounded rabbit. He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the basement door.
"No," I begged, digging my heels into the floor. "Anthony, please! Not the basement! You know I can't—please, it's too small!"
I was claustrophobic. He knew that. He knew that ever since I was a child, tight, dark spaces made me feel like I was dying.
"You should have thought of that before you tried to kill Leo," he spat.
He shoved me down the stairs.
I tumbled into the darkness. The heavy oak door slammed shut.
Click.
The lock turned.
"Anthony!" I screamed, pounding on the wood. "Anthony, please! I can't breathe in here! Open the door!"
Silence.
I was alone in the dark. The air was stale, smelling of mold and old fear. I curled into a ball at the bottom of the stairs, rocking back and forth. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to imagine I was in a field, under the sky.
But all I could see were walls. Closing in. Crushing me.
When the door finally opened, the light blinded me.
"Get up," Anthony’s voice drifted down. "Dinner needs to be cooked."
I crawled up the stairs, my limbs stiff, my throat raw from screaming. I blinked against the harsh hallway lights.
"I... I need to change," I rasped. "I need to wash my face."
"Make it quick," he said, turning his back on me.
I stumbled toward my room. I froze.
The room was empty. My clothes were gone. The photos of Alexus I had hidden under the mattress were gone. The blanket that smelled like him—gone.
I ran to the window.
Outside, in the center of the manicured lawn, a fire was burning. A metal barrel was spewing black smoke into the gray sky.
I sprinted through the house, out the back door, and across the grass.
I reached the barrel.
The heat seared my face. Inside, the flames were devouring fabric. Blue fabric. Dinosaur patterns.
"No," I whimpered.
I reached in, trying to grab a burning piece of cloth, but the heat forced me back.
It was Alexus’s blanket. His clothes. The few toys I had managed to save.
I fell to my knees, watching the last physical pieces of my son disappear.
"Why?" I sobbed into the grass. "Why are you doing this?"
I stayed there until the fire died down to embers. Until there was nothing left but gray dust.
Numbly, I walked back into the house.
I walked down the hallway, my eyes fixed on the floor.
Then I heard a sound.
Shake. Shake. Shake.
I looked up.
Leo was sitting in the middle of the hallway. He was holding something heavy. Something marble.
My breath hitched.
The urn.
Alexus’s urn.
Leo was holding it upside down. He was shaking it violently.
"Rocket ship!" Leo giggled, banging the urn against the floor. "Empty rocket ship!"
I felt my soul leave my body.
"Stop!" I shrieked.
I lunged forward, snatching the urn from his hands. I clutched it to my chest, falling to my knees.
I frantically pulled the lid off.
I looked inside.
Empty.
Clean.
There was nothing. No ash. No bone fragments. No Alexus.
"Where is he?" I whispered, my voice trembling so hard it hurt. I looked at Leo. "Where is he?!"
Leo looked scared. He pointed toward the trash chute at the end of the hall.
"It was just dirt," he whimpered. "I dumped the dirt so the rocket could fly."
I screamed.
"What is going on here?"
Alicia stepped out of her room, looking annoyed. She saw me clutching the empty urn. She saw Leo crying.
"Oh," she said, her voice dripping with fake boredom. "He must have thrown it away. Honestly, Amber, you shouldn't leave such morbid things lying around where children can find them."
"You..." I choked out. "You let him..."
I stood up. The empty urn fell from my hands and shattered on the floor.
I didn't care. He wasn't in there anymore. He was gone. Truly gone.
Anthony looked up from his desk, startled.
"Divorce me!" I screamed. "Divorce me now! Let me go!"
I slammed my hands on his desk. I was sobbing, my tears dripping onto his expensive paperwork.
"Just let me go, Anthony! Please! I can't do this anymore!"
Anthony looked at me. He didn't look angry. He didn't look sad.
He laughed. A cold, dry chuckle that sent shivers down my spine.
"Let you go?" he asked, leaning back in his leather chair. "Why would I do that?"
"Because you hate me!" I cried. "Because you have Alicia! Because you have your son!"
"I don't just want you gone, Amber," he said softly. "I want you miserable. I want you to suffer every single day for the rest of your life."
"Why?" I whispered. "I loved you. I gave you everything. You’re hurting me for no reason! You don't love me anymore, fine—but why this cruelty?"
Anthony stood up. His face hardened into stone.
"I'm returning the favor," he said.
"What?"
"You think you're the victim?" He walked around the desk, stopping inches from my face. "You’re the one who cheated on me first."
My mouth fell open. "I... I never..."
"Don't lie to me!" he roared, slamming his fist against the wall. "Alicia told me everything, and the DNA proved that Alexus is not my son!”
