Richard's face was dark with fury, Delilah clutched against his chest, still trembling.
"Put it down!"
I snatched the tablets back before he could. The lacquer along one edge was already chipped away.
The year my parents were buried, Richard had knelt before these very tablets, his eyes rimmed red, and made a vow.
"Mr. and Mrs. Winfield, I'll take good care of Rosamond. I won't let her suffer a single hurt."
Now he looked at the thing in my arms like it disgusted him.
"Rosamond, the living live in this house. Do you really have to keep dead people's tablets in your room?"
"Delilah's always been timid. She went in looking for something and got so frightened she fainted."
There was nothing of Delilah's in my room.
It was only when I looked up that I saw it. In Delilah's hand was a blessing jade pendant.
It was the one Richard and I had knelt three thousand steps for on our fifth anniversary, bowing our foreheads to the ground at every step to ask for it.
He'd loved it so much he put it on his neck right there.
"Rosie, this is proof of what we have. I'll never take it off, not as long as I live."
And now that pendant was being turned over and toyed with in Delilah's fingers.
She glanced up at Richard, her voice going soft and petulant.
"Richard, the jade's such a lovely color, but this red cord is so tacky."
"Let me go to the mall tomorrow and get you a new chain for it, okay?"
Richard nodded, indulgent.
"Sure. Whatever you want."
A dull ache spread through my chest. I had braided that red cord for him with my own hands.
I looked at Delilah, cold, and she shrank back as if afraid.
Then her hand gave a sharp jerk, and the jade pendant slipped from her fingers.
Eyes burning, I threw myself down on the floor like something possessed, scrambling for the broken jade.
The shards were sharp. One sliced open my palm, and blood welled up in an instant.
Seeing it, Richard hurried to pull Delilah up beside him.
"Delilah, the pieces didn't cut you, did they?"
I lifted my head, my voice shaking.
"We asked for that together."
Richard raised his voice, righteous.
"It's just a worthless rock. So it broke. So what."
"Do you have to make a scene like this over some cheap piece of junk?"
Those three thousand steps. I'd split my forehead open. My knees had been raw, torn to the flesh.
And now, in his eyes, all of it was worth nothing.
I let go, and the bloodied shards fell back to the floor.
Then I braced myself against the coffee table and lifted my parents' tablets into my arms again.
"You're right, Richard. It broke, so it broke. None of it matters anymore."
"I'm taking the tablets. And I don't want you either."
Richard's face froze for a beat, panic flickering deep in his eyes.
"Rosamond, what's gotten into you now?"
"I'm telling you, if you dare pull this running-away stunt today, don't ever think about coming back!"
"I don't believe it. An orphan girl with both parents dead, who else could ever want you!"
I didn't look back. I carried the tablets out into the downpour.
With every step, the broken bone in my shin ground against itself, over and over, the pain so bad I could hardly breathe.
Richard and Delilah stood in the doorway. I could still faintly hear them.
"Richard, where can Rosamond even go, all by herself?"
Her voice was full of concern, but a mocking laugh sat behind her eyes.
Richard let out a cold snort.
"There's barely any money on her card, and she's got nobody. I'll bet she doesn't make it to the front gate before she comes crawling back to make up."
Richard clenched his fist.
"She needs to suffer a little this time. Maybe it'll fix that temper of hers."
I gritted my teeth, pulled off my coat, and wrapped it around my mom and dad's tablets.
