She started to leave the room, but I was behind her. I pulled her back.
“You can’t do this. What about Valentina? I’m her father!”
She gave me a look that sent shivers down my spine. “She won’t even remember you. I’m going to make sure you never see her again. I’ll find another man to be her father, and she’ll love him, think of him as her father. You’ll be nothing to her . . .”
All I saw was red. I reached out and put my hands around her throat and squeezed. I couldn’t listen anymore. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” I screamed, over and over, at full volume. Suddenly she went limp, and her knees buckled. I let go, and she fell to the floor. It was then I heard a cry.
“What’s wrong with Mommy?”
Valentina! Had she been standing there the whole time? I ran over to her and scooped her up. “Mommy’s sleeping.”
She tried to get out of my arms, crying and kicking. “Mommy, Mommy.”
I let her go, and as she ran to Cassandra, I bounded down the stairs for my doctor’s bag. I was careful with the dosage, but I quickly filled the syringe and took the steps back up two at a time.
I grabbed Valentina by the arm. “I’m sorry, sweetie. This will just hurt for a minute.” I plunged the needle into her skin, and she was out within seconds.
I feel a tear slide down my cheek as I come back to the present, in Cassandra’s cellar room. How many times have I replayed that scene over and over in my mind, changing the ending, making things turn out right? But the past can’t be changed. The only thing to do is to look ahead. And everything I’ve done since that dark day has been in service of protecting our precious child.
I swallow the rest of the wine in my glass, staring at her portrait. “I know it must bother you to think that she’s using all your things, wearing your clothes, taking on your identity. I’m sorry that I had to let her take your name. It hurts me every time I have to call her that, but I do it for Valentina. And for you. I can’t have anyone figuring out that you’re gone, my love. They’d come for me, and then Valentina would be all alone.”
I continue, wanting to explain everything to her. I wish I could go and visit her out in the open, put flowers on her grave, but it’s not possible. “My darling, I’m so sorry that I couldn’t give you a proper burial. But I can’t risk anyone finding out the truth and taking Valentina. And in some ways, by turning Amelia into you, I’ve reincarnated you.”
Suddenly I hear a scream. As I spin around, I realize it came from the new Cassandra. Before I can say anything, she bolts from the room and flies up the stairs. I run after her, panting, yelling, “Wait! You don’t understand.” I have to stop her before she tells someone. She slams the basement door behind her, and I bang into it, slipping back down a couple of steps. Jumping up, I scale them again, push the door open, and run into the foyer. The front door of the house is wide open.
She’s running down the driveway now. I try to catch up, but it’s dark. “Cassandra!” I yell, but she doesn’t stop. I’ve almost caught up to her—I can almost touch the back of her shirt. She sprints across the street, and I follow. I hear the scream of a horn, and then everything goes black.
*
I open my eyes. Everything is blurry. I realize I’m in a bed, but where? There is buzzing and beeping all around me, and it hits me that I’m in a hospital emergency room. I try to sit up, but a wave of dizziness makes me fall back onto the pillow. My hand feels around, and my fingers close on something hard. I see the button for the nurse and press it. The effort exhausts me, and I close my eyes.
“Dr. Hunter?”
My eyes open again. A woman is standing by the bed.
“What happened?” I ask.
“You were hit by a car. You’ve been unconscious for several hours.”
“What?” Then it starts to come back to me. Cassandra. Amelia found out that she is not really Cassandra. Where is she?
“Do I have a concussion?”
“I’ve paged the doctor. He’ll be here shortly.”
As I wait for the doctor to arrive, I try to piece together the events that have landed me here. I can remember now being interrupted while I talked to the old Cassandra. Why did the new Cassandra come home? She was supposed to be at a sleepover with Valentina at the aquarium. Has something happened to Valentina? Why did Cassandra come home without her? What time is it? My eyes scan the room and fix on a clock high up on the wall opposite my bed. Three a.m. Suddenly, I’m panicked. Where is Valentina, and what has happened to the new Cassandra? If I’ve been out for hours, she’ll have had plenty of time to go to the police and tell them everything. They could be at the house now. If she heard everything I said, they could be searching for Cassandra’s body in the backyard. I have to get there before they do. I sit up, despite my vertigo, and swing my legs over the side of the bed.