The Favorite Daughter by Kaira Rouda

Author:Kaira Rouda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Graydon House Books
Published: 2019-03-28T15:55:20+00:00

17

2:00 a.m.

I sit on the couch in the living room awake, waiting for Betsy. I’ve left my lookout only to use the bathroom and make a snack. I’m on a mission. I’m focused.

It’s time to extract information from my daughter. But I’m going to need help. What exactly does the anonymous note writer think Betsy knows, versus what I know? David will be no help. But there are professionals who do this. People like Detective Branson.

I stretch. What if Betsy made it into the house without alerting me, somehow sneaking past me through the outside courtyard when I was having my snack, darting down to her bedroom undetected by going around the side? I need to check. I guess I’ll let her sleep if she’s down there. But if she’s awake, I’ll strike, cobra-like.

What if she isn’t home? What if she doesn’t come home at all?

My heart thumps and I pull out my phone. Text Betsy: Where are you?

Betsy texts: You’ll never find peace until you let everything go.

What? I punch in her number. The phone rings twice before it’s answered. By a man.

“Mrs. Harris. This is Bo—we met at school. Betsy is safe. She’ll be home a little later.”

“Give Betsy her phone this minute. She has a curfew. She’s in high school.”

“Mom, calm down. I told Bo you wouldn’t like him answering. I’ll be home late. Go to sleep. It’s Seniors’ Day, late start.” Betsy’s voice sounds like she is on drugs.

“I need you home this minute. I will pick you up.” I remember she thinks I don’t drive anymore.

“You don’t drive. I’m fine. I’ll be home soon.”

“Listen, young lady. This behavior is unacceptable. You’re out way past curfew and we need to talk. Come home immediately.”

“You do know I’m about to graduate, Mom. Your reign is over. Mary and I both will be gone.”

“Betsy!”

She’s hung up the phone. When I call back it goes to voice mail.

Mary would never have pulled something like this. She did have her secrets, true, but nothing like this. This could bring another embarrassment onto our entire family. Why can’t Betsy be the straight A, popular, normal kid? No, she has to be an artsy loser dating a person she shouldn’t.

Aren’t the adopted kids supposed to be the ones with problems? Yes, they are, and they are good for the waistline. Betsy was the opposite.

I discovered I was pregnant three months after Mary’s adoption. I’d made the mistake of removing my IUD and bam. My pants were tight, and soon my figure disappeared. I thought I’d dodged the pregnancy bullet and could only hope I didn’t have my mom’s penchant for thirty-pound weight gain with pregnancy.

But I did.

When Betsy was born, I wished for the best for both of us. Those wishes included, first, that I would lose the weight quickly and, second, that I’d be blessed with another little angel who I could mold into a successful, beautiful person who loved her mother. I dropped the weight quickly but lightning doesn’t strike

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