"You have to give Carina's mommy presents, and you have to buy her purses, and a car, and a house. You're just our maid and our ATM. All your money belongs to Carina's mommy. And if you don't listen, I'll push you into the street and let a car run you over..."
"Carina!" Dante's voice cracked sharp, but the panic on his face was impossible to hide.
He glanced at me, let out a hollow laugh that fooled no one. "Honey, kids say the darndest things. She didn't mean it. I'll have a talk with her later, I promise. Don't take it to heart."
Children said careless things, sure. But words that vicious didn't come from nowhere. Without someone coaching her, a five-year-old couldn't have strung those sentences together. The timing was too precise. The cruelty too adult.
A maid.
An ATM.
Push me into traffic and let a car kill me.
The way a car killed my child five years ago.
I tugged faintly at the corners of my mouth, but inside, the cold cut straight to the bone.
"Of course I won't blame her. Carina is my own flesh and blood. I risked my life to bring her into this world. How could I hold anything against her?"