My feet stopped before I could tell them not to.
She leaned in close to my ear, her voice cold as a blade. "Your mother actually woke up before she died."
"Piers kept it from you. He injected her with drugs to keep her in a coma."
My mind detonated. I stood frozen, trembling so violently I couldn't stop.
Mom had woken up. That meant she...
"That's right." Julie read my thoughts, and the corners of her pointed mouth curled high. "She was conscious when she died."
"After the machines were shut off, she fought to breathe. Her body was like a punctured bellows. I've never seen anyone's chest heave that hard."
"She even opened her eyes. I recorded the whole thing, her eyes rolling back, all of it. Want to see?"
My chest heaved violently. Every breath felt like being flayed alive.
Was this what Mom felt in her final moments?
No. What she endured must have been a thousand times worse than this.
"You want to know how I know all this?" Julie tilted her head, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "Because I'm the one who turned off the machines."
Crack.