Golden Cage Mommy Mutiny (Elyse) novel Chapter 60

Mom threw herself onto my bed and finally broke down, sobbing out loud.

I stood beside her, completely at a loss, and could only wait for her to calm down a little at a time.

The Barbie dolls she’d torn apart were still scattered across the floor.

I didn’t know how long she cried before she finally pushed herself upright.

She sniffed and looked at the broken dolls, then slid down to sit on the floor. “I’m sorry, Penny.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t see this. You’d be so mad at Mom, wouldn’t you?”

I was a little mad, but watching her now just made my heart ache.

“It’s okay. I’ll fix all of these for you, and then I’ll buy you so, so many new dolls to make up for it.”

She tried to piece the dolls back together with tape.

When tape didn’t work, she switched to a needle and thread.

Her hands trembled, and the needle kept slipping, stabbing into her fingertips.

She managed to sew the dolls back together, but every one of them was crooked and twisted, and their little dresses were stained with bright red drops of her blood.

She looked at the dolls and smiled, satisfied, then gathered them into her arms.

“Good girl, Penny. Let Mom rock you to sleep, okay”

“Go to sleep, Penny, go to sleep…”

She started singing a lullaby I used to hear all the time when I was little. For a second I felt dazed- ever since Jamie was born, I hadn’t heard it even once.

She patted the dolls gently, as if they really were drifting off to sleep.

Then, tiptoeing, she got up and opened my closet.

She took out my clothes and hugged them to her chest, breathing them in before pressing them lightly against her cheek.

“My Penny…”

I sat on the bed, swinging my legs back and forth.

Everything that had happened these last few days made it feel like Mom and Dad loved me again.

But I couldn’t tell if they really loved me, or if they just felt guilty because I was dead.

Chapter 8

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Chapter 9

The next day, Mom went out and bought armfuls of Barbie dolls and little dresses.

She filled my once–empty closet until it was packed tight.

Dad started cooking my favorite dishes over and over and carrying them into my room.

The two of them seemed trapped in this house, unable to leave.

Then one day, there was a sudden knock at the door

“Are you Penny Graham’s parents? We’ve received a report from the public accusing you of deliberately abusing and killing a young girl. You’ll need to come down to the station with us.”

Mom and Dad were going to be taken to the police station, and they were going to be handcuffed.

Only bad people had to wear those. My mom and dad weren’t bad people!

But no matter how much I didn’t want it to happen, still heard the click of the cuffs locking shut.

Mom and Dad were much calmer than I’d imagined they would be.

The neighbors in our complex couldn’t help openly criticizing them.

One of them was Mrs. Rose from upstairs. I knew her.

“Penny was such a sweet kid–beautiful, too. Everybody here loved her. How did she end up with

parents like that?”

“Exactly. This was straight–up murder. Letting them pay with their lives wouldn’t be too much.”

“They should throw the book at people like this. If you don’t want to raise a kid, don’t have one. It’s

the twenty–first century and they’re still pulling that ‘boys matter more than girls‘ crap.”

“Let them die.”

Mom and Dad didn’t argue back once. The corners of their mouths even lifted faintly.

“If I really could take her place, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Without Penny, I don’t want to live either. Jamie doesn’t deserve to have two killers for parents.”

They muttered to themselves, and one of the officers gave a cold snort.

“Whether you live or die isn’t up to you. The law will decide that.”

The officers tried to get Mom and Dad into the car, ut Mom suddenly stopped short.

“There’s one last thing I want to do. Once I’ve donet, I’ll go with you. Is that okay?”

Chapter 9

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I drifted after them, puzzled.

Did Mom want to see Jamie? That made sense. She should say goodbye.

But instead of going to Grandma and Grandpa’s, they headed for my preschool.