Chapter 18: Bella Speaks

Brenda spoke first.

She sat on the edge of the sofa with her hands folded and her eyes wet.

"I want to say that I forgive her," she said. "Whatever she says tonight, I forgive her. She's been influenced."

"By who?" Odette asked.

"By someone who has wanted my daughter for a long time."

The lavender women nodded.

An elder cleared his throat.

"Virginia," he said. "We understand there's been a lot of hurt. We want to hear it."

"Then hear it." I did not stand. "My mother locked me in a kitchen an hour ago because I told her the truth about her cooking."

"She was frightened," Brenda said.

"She told me I was an accident on a form."

"I never said that."

I lifted my phone from the arm of the chair, tapped the screen, and turned up the volume.

Brenda's voice filled the living room.

"You were never yours! You were an accident on a form. You were a name on a card. I wanted my daughter, and what I got was you."

Nobody breathed.

The pastor closed his eyes.

One of the lavender women set the casserole down very slowly on the floor.

"That's out of context," Brenda said, a half-second too fast.

"What's the context?" Luke asked from the doorway.

"Be quiet, you."

"Brenda," said the pastor.

The front door opened.

Bella came in first.

She was in her pink sundress, with Odette's red hot sauce stain still on the collar, and she walked straight down the center of the room.

Donald came in behind her, in his rumpled office shirt.

Brenda half rose from the sofa.

"Bella. Baby. Go upstairs."

"No, ma'am."

Bella turned to face the circle.

She was shaking, and she locked her knees and kept her voice level.

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