All Chapters of Abuse My Daughter? I'll Wreck His Wake: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

“Mommy, I saw a really white hand when that cloth fell off.”My fingers dug into my palms as my hands trembled. “Do not look, Baby. Go to the door to skip and count from one to one hundred. Mommy will be there soon.”She sobbed while counting. “One, two, three.” Every number she said hit me like a hammer.I tried calling my ex-husband’s older sister, Florence Crumb, who picked up only after the phone rang about nine times. “Dottie? Edie said she brought Dottie back to the wake. I had a little too much to drink just now.”“Dottie is in the mortuary refrigerator. Wake up, Florence.”Only the sound of Florence turning over and snoring answered me. She was dead drunk. I shouted her name at least three times, but she did not respond. Florence never drank because of her weak stomach, and she always threw up the moment she consumed alcohol. Edie must have been the one who made her drink.I called Edie’s number with clenched teeth, and she picked up quickly. I heard a variety show playin

Chapter 2

My car was the only one speeding on the highway at one hundred miles per hour. My left hand stayed on the steering wheel, and my right hand clicked through my phone as I searched for a flight.When I reached the fourth company, a webpage appeared for a private flight. It was a small plane that could take off in the middle of the night, and the earliest flight was in an hour. It cost four thousand dollars, and I needed to transfer the money right away. It took me three tries to complete the transfer.My watch vibrated again, and I heard Dottie singing, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”Dottie was breathless between every word she sang. She struggled to breathe, yet she tried to finish the song. I bit my lip until it bled, and I tasted blood in my mouth. She suddenly stopped singing. “I can’t sing anymore, Mommy. My lips feel hard, and I can’t open them.”Her lips were turning stiff. That meant her muscles were losing temperature. “Listen to me, Baby. Stand up and clap your hands. Cla

Chapter 3

A minute later, Mandy called me back while catching her breath through gritted teeth. “I was thrown out by four people, Nina. They threw me right over the wall.” She paused before saying, “Sorry.”“It is not your fault. Call the police again and tell them that a minor has been held against her will. You are a witness because you heard her crying.”“All right.”It was four ten in the morning when I arrived at the airport. My private plane was parked in the hangar. The pilot was about fifty, and he was conducting a final check before the flight. “We still need twenty minutes.”“Make it ten, and I will pay you another thousand dollars.”The pilot turned to glance at me. Tears streamed down my face, and I was barefoot, while my clothes were covered in dust. He started working faster without another word.My watch vibrated, and I answered the call. Weak breathing could be heard on the other end. It was slow, short, and took too much time between inhales.“Dottie.”There was no reply

Chapter 4

Leo drove like he was a man on a mission. He did not hit the brakes when he reached a bend, and he did not flinch when the truck opposite honked and flashed at him. He sped past everything with a sharp turn of the steering wheel.I grabbed my seat, and my nails dug into the upholstery as I stared at the GPS. Two miles. One point seven miles. “Hurry up, Leo.”Leo stayed silent as he increased the speed from seventy-five miles per hour to eighty-five miles per hour.It was six oh five in the morning when the metal gates of the funeral parlor appeared through the mist in front of us, locked. Before I said anything, Leo stepped on the gas, and his car crashed into the metal gates. The sound of metal cracking echoed through the streets. The railings were pulled out of the ground and dragged below the car as sparks flew everywhere.Leo pulled the emergency brake right outside Building B, and I dashed out of the car. The metal doors were closed, and four people stood outside. They were Ed

Chapter 5

Leo had already called 911. The morning light shone down on us as I ran out of the three sets of doors with Dottie in my arms. Edie was still sitting outside and wailing. When she saw Dottie in my arms, she turned pale.I placed Dottie on a stone bench and took off everything I could to wrap her up and keep her warm. I rubbed her hands and feet and patted her face. “Wake up, Dottie. Look at Mommy.”Dottie’s eyes fluttered, and I saw a dim light in her slightly opened eyes. Her lips moved slowly. “I’m so sleepy, Mommy. Daddy told me to go with him because it was warmer where he was going.”Her eyes closed again.I tried to resuscitate her by pressing down on her chest one hundred twenty times per minute until my arms lost all feeling. I needed to keep a constant rhythm, and I could not stop. Dottie’s body rose and fell with every press of my palms, but she still did not react.Leo crouched next to me without speaking. His tears fell onto Dottie’s face, but they bounced off her icy

Chapter 6

A crack appeared on her dainty face when Edie saw that I refused to back down. She leaned forward and spoke in a lowered voice. “You should know what’s good for you, Nina. Dottie was keeping vigil for her father at the wake. As her stepmother, I have the right to make that arrangement. No law says a vigil cannot be next to a mortuary refrigerator. All I have to say is that she ran inside herself, and the wind blew the door shut. Do you have any evidence that I locked the door?”Herman affirmed her words. “There are no surveillance cameras around the mortuary refrigerator, Madam Shore. Your allegations about the locked door are based only on the testimony of you and your daughter. As for your violent behavior this morning, we have four witnesses.”He shrugged. “If we go to court, there is no knowing who will be the party that ends up convicted.”Edie’s voice rose an octave. “Wilber left behind his house, savings, and insurance, which comes up to at least five million. If you go up ag

Chapter 7

Dottie’s eyes moved the next afternoon in the ICU. I had been leaning against the glass window without moving for thirty-six hours, and I thought I was imagining it. Her eyelashes fluttered again, and she opened her eyes.There was a blank look in her eyes when she turned slowly toward me and stopped. Her lips moved, and I could not hear her voice through the window, but I could read them.Mommy.Tears streamed down my face.The nurse made an exception and let me inside for five minutes. Dottie’s hand reached out from under the covers. It was bandaged, and her fingernails were purple, but she grabbed my index finger. “Can I still play the piano, Mommy?”I opened my mouth, but no voice came out.Her doctor put up her X-ray for me to see. “Dottie’s right ring finger and pinkie, along with three toes on her left foot, have suffered serious frostbite. She has peripheral vascular thrombosis and necrosis of her fingertips.”“Are we able to keep them?”“There is a chance if treatment

Chapter 8

I slammed the investigation report of the brake fluid hose in front of Officer Furlong. She flipped through two pages before looking up at me. “Illegally detaining a minor is a serious charge, but intent to murder is a crime on another level.”“Yes, I know.”“This means we need to reposition the entire case, and our technical and forensics department will need to start over, Madam Shore.”“How long will this take?”“The car in question has been towed into the criminal lab for a second review of the investigation results.”Edie was a changed woman while being detained. She no longer threw her weight around. She cried, trembled, and spoke in a careful tone. “It was a moment of stupidity, and I was wrong to try to discipline Dottie when she was always disobedient.”Officer Furlong did not waste time with her. She pressed a button to play an audio recording. The voice messages from the Stepmother’s Alliance echoed through the interrogation room.“If I manage to scare that little wre

Chapter 9

A week before Edie went on trial, her mother barged into the hospital with a group of relatives. An old woman with a full head of red hair colored with cheap dye led the group. She held a pretty photo of Edie when she was young. She sat down in the lobby and started wailing. “Give me back my daughter. You’re killing my daughter.”Another woman chimed in with her hands on her waist. “Edie is a wonderful woman who has suffered a lot since marrying into this family. Now she’s been framed as a murderer.”A bald man continued, “That little wretch ran into the mortuary refrigerator on her own, but everyone pointed their fingers at Edie. Where is the justice in this?”While the commotion continued, a young man tried to rush toward the stairs, but Leo stood there with his arms crossed. The young man stopped and cursed before backing away.Hospital security called the police, and the James family scattered, leaving the old woman on the floor. She refused to leave. I went downstairs to see h

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