41
Serena’s voice drifted into Annie’s consciousness.
“I just wanted my son. To finally take him home, where he belongs.”
With those words, Annie finally snapped out of her stupor. Her eyes widened so much that she was afraid they would pop out. “Do you hear yourself? Do you hear how bad this all sounds? You were just going to take Finn? To kidnap him?”
“No! Of course not.” Serena’s brows came together in consternation. “It’s not kidnapping if he’s my son.”
“He’s not your son!” Annie yelled, shaking her hands next to her head. She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. “You are insane to think you could just kidnap my son. You’re a criminal. I’m calling the police.” Maybe if both she and Brody called, they would realize the urgency of the situation.
“Annie, please don’t.” Serena put her hands up together in front of her, her eyes pleading. “I didn’t mean for that day to happen. I would give anything to take it back. I’ve suffered enough since it happened.” Her shoulders lifted a bit, then settled down.
“You’re not . . .” Annie struggled for the right words. “You’re not right in the head.”
“I’m not like this all the time. Only when something really bad happens. But I’m okay now. I have a reason to live again.”
How many other “really bad” things had this woman done in her life? When Serena had told her about Johnny’s death, Annie had believed her. But now she was beginning to wonder whether Serena had had a hand in what happened to her son after all. And killing a teenager, no matter whether it was accidental, was pretty bad in Annie’s book.
Serena hung her head. “Danny left me because he thinks I killed Johnny. He said there’s something wrong with me. That’s why he wanted me to go to the hospital.” She swiped the back of one hand across her face. “I know I would never hurt my son. But sometimes, I do things without knowing I did them. I have these blackouts and I don’t remember anything I did while I was having them. Do you want to know my deepest, darkest secret?”
Serena’s green eyes flashed at her from across the room. Annie shook her head. She didn’t want to hear any more. Serena was a murderer. She reached down to rub Marley’s side, telegraphing to him to stay with her. They were getting out of here. But just as she was about to bolt for the front door, Serena spoke.
“I think I killed Johnny during one of those blackouts. I think Danny was right.”
“What?” Annie halted, swinging her attention back to Serena. She wanted to leave, she really did, but some sick fascination rooted her there. This was so much worse than anything she could have imagined when she opened the door to this woman.
“I’ve put Johnny’s life in danger more than once,” Serena continued, while Annie was in a half squat, about to get up from the couch. “But none of it was my fault. I didn’t leave the stove burning on purpose that one time. I could have sworn I shut it off.”
“What happened?” Annie dropped back onto the couch. Why, oh why, was she still here, listening to the words of a woman who had been stalking them all these years? Why wasn’t she running screaming from the house? Because maybe there’s some kernel of truth to what Serena said, and Johnny was my son. If so, I have to know what happened to him. “No,” she said out loud. “No, no, no.”
Serena didn’t even look at Annie as she answered her earlier question. “I only ran downstairs to get the mail while the soup warmed up. It wasn’t my fault that I ran into a neighbor in the mailroom. We started talking and . . . I lost track of time. The next thing I knew, the fire department was there because our apartment was on fire, and one of the firemen came out with Johnny in his arms.”
Annie gasped, her quick inhalation catching in her throat. “Was Johnny okay?”
“He had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation. But it wasn’t my fault.”
“Um . . .” Her mouth flopped open.
“And also, Danny told them that I fed Johnny poison. I didn’t. It was an accident—a mistake. I would never feed him poison.” Serena was agitated, her body twitching as her words came faster. “Johnny liked these Japanese rice crackers, and I bought a new brand we’d never tried before. There was this round container inside it, and I thought it was extra crackers or something. How was I supposed to know it was the preservatives? It looked like a cracker box, or like a dip.”
“Oh, Serena.” Annie was beginning to get the picture. And it wasn’t a good one.
“He threw it up and everything was fine. I would never have done anything to hurt him. Not intentionally. I loved him, even though I found out after he died that he wasn’t my son.”
Annie stayed quiet. She had no words.
“I need to make things right.” Serena’s words made Annie look at her again. “You have to believe me. I’m telling the truth. But I . . .” She broke off eye contact and hugged her arms around herself, looking down at the floor.
Annie sat frozen, staring at the top of Serena’s head. There had been something in her gaze just then that was eerily familiar. It was like looking into her own mind, seeing the guilt, the shame, the uncertainty that Annie herself had been living with. Only a moment before, she had been positive there was something wrong with Serena’s mind. But now Annie felt as if she’d looked into the depths of her own soul, mirrored in Serena’s eyes, and it scared her. Was she as delusional as Serena? Was that why they felt such a bond with each other? Why couldn’t she make herself leave?
Neither spoke for a moment, and the sounds of the wind howling outside and the rain pelting down punctuated the silence between them. Marley whined at Annie’s side, and she reached a hand out to soothe him.
Why weren’t the police here yet? Had Brody even been able to get through if cell service wasn’t good? “You have to go to the police, tell them what happened, that it was an accident,” Annie finally said.
“I . . .” Serena looked up. “I can’t. I can’t go to jail. I need my son. He’s the only thing I have left to live for. I’ll die without him.”
“Serena . . .” Annie took a careful breath as a sense of doom washed over her. She had to leave. Now, before Serena sucked her back into her delusions. Annie reached out a hand to grab Marley’s collar, and taking another breath, she got ready to ram her way past Serena and out the front door. But before she could, the lights went off, plunging them into darkness. They’d lost power, just like her father had predicted.
42
Annie let go of Marley’s collar and tapped her cell phone, which sent an eerie glow out into the darkened Ohana. She had no bars. Whenever they lost power, the Wi-Fi went down, but she’d always had cell service before. Were the cell towers out too? Brody was out in this storm in his car, stuck on Kuhio Highway. All she wanted at that moment was to hold Finn close and to have Brody come home to them in one piece.
She suddenly realized that the Ohana was quiet. Too quiet. Where was Serena? She turned on the flashlight on her phone and shone it around her. When the beam swung to where Serena had been standing before the lights went out, Annie’s heart jumped into her throat. Serena wasn’t there. Marley growled deep in his throat, causing Annie to sweep the light across the Ohana. Goose bumps broke out all over her arms. There were eyes watching her. She could feel them. Feel them following her every move. Her breath hitched, and then she held it, straining her ears for any sound, any movement.