CHAPTER THREE:Her Only Crime Was Being a Girl
1340 Words
Roberta’s POV
The second I saw Ziva standing at the bottom of the stairs, her little face pale and frightened, something inside me broke.
I crossed the room before I even thought about it and pulled her into my arms.
“Grandma?” Ziva whispered.
But Irene looked straight at her.
“You have a brother, Ziva. His name is Nolan. He’s very sick. He needs your help.”
Ziva blinked up at her, confused.
“Your father has been taking care of him,” Irene continued. “Now you need to take care of him too. That’s what family does.”
“No.” My voice cracked like a whip. “You will not talk about my daughter like she’s some tool to save your illegitimate grandson. She is a child.”
“She’s old enough to understand duty,” Jace said.
Without even flinching.
Ziva’s lower lip trembled.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked softly. “I’ll be good. I promise. Please don’t be mad at me, Grandma. I’ll do anything.”
Something inside my chest split wide open.
Irene smiled at her. It was the kind of smile that belonged on a snake.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, dear. But Nolan is a boy. He’ll carry the Riggs name. He’ll continue the family.” Her eyes slid over Ziva. “You’re a girl. So you help him. That’s your role.”
Ziva’s face crumpled.
Irene reached for her.
“It’s not about being good, sweetheart. It’s about what you have inside you. Your marrow. That’s what Nolan needs.”
Then Ziva started to cry.
Not loud. Not at first.
Just small, broken sounds from a little girl who had learned, all at once, that she was not enough. Not the right child. Not the wanted child. Not unless she gave away a piece of herself.
I pulled her tighter against me and covered her ears.
Then I looked at Jace.
At Irene.
“You will both rot in hell.”
My voice didn’t shake.
I turned and walked to the stairs with Ziva in my arms.
“Don’t you walk away from me,” Jace shouted.
I kept walking.
“Roberta!”
I climbed the stairs without looking back.
***
Ziva’s room was pink and soft and safe.
The curtains she had picked herself still hung crooked because she liked them that way. Her stuffed rabbit sat on the pillow waiting for her.
I sat on the bed and held her.
Rocked her slowly.
“Is Nolan better?” she whispered against my chest. “Is that why Daddy never plays with me?”
“No, sweetheart. No.”
“It’s okay.” Her voice was so quiet I almost missed it. “I’ll help Nolan.”
“No, baby. You don’t have to.”
“I want to.” She looked up at me with eyes far too old for seven. “If it makes Daddy and Grandma love me.”
I shut my eyes.
Dear God.
My arms tightened around her so hard she squeaked.
Then she pulled back a little.
“But I love Daddy,” she said. “Why doesn’t he love me, Mommy?”
There are questions no mother should ever have to answer.
I had nothing.
No lie gentle enough. No truth kind enough.
So I just held her.
I held her while she cried. I held her until her tears slowed, until her breathing softened, until she finally fell asleep against me.
Then I sat there in the dark with my daughter in my arms and let the silence swallow the room.
By the time I laid her down and pulled the blanket to her chin, something inside me had changed.
The fear was still there.
But beneath it was something colder.
Something harder.
I kissed her forehead, left the room, and called the only person I had left.
Millie answered on the second ring.
“He’s doing it again,” I said.
My voice cracked.
“Millie, I need you.”
“Come over,” she said immediately.
***
Millie opened the door before I even knocked.
“I’m here,” she said, pulling me inside.
The second she touched me, I fell apart.
I had promised myself I wouldn’t. I had spent the whole drive telling myself to stay calm, to explain it logically, to keep it together.
Instead, I cried into her shoulder like my ribs were breaking open.
She led me to the couch. Made tea I never touched. Sat beside me and listened.
Millie had always been good at that. Really listening. Like every word mattered.
So I told her everything.
The son.
The secret.
The test.
The transplant.
By the end, her face had gone white with anger.
“What is wrong with your husband?” she snapped. “Is he insane?”
I gave a broken laugh.
“He says he’ll take Ziva if I leave.”
“He can threaten all he wants.” Millie grabbed my hand. “Get a lawyer. Go to the police. What he did was illegal. He tested your daughter without your permission.”
“You really think I can fight him?”
“I know you can.”
Her fingers squeezed mine.
“You do not owe them your daughter, Roberta. And you are not alone.”
For the first time in days, something loosened in my chest.
Not hope.
Maybe just the memory of it.
Her phone buzzed beside her. She glanced at the screen, frowned, and turned it over without answering.
***
The next week was worse.
Jace stopped shouting.
He didn’t need to.
Instead, he became careful.
Cold.
Every morning, I would find something waiting for me on the kitchen counter.
Medical reports.
Doctor’s notes.
Photographs.
Nolan in a hospital bed.
Pale skin. Tubes in his arms. Eyes closed.
Jace left them there like bills that needed paying.
“He’s getting worse,” he said one evening, standing at the sink. “The doctors think he only has weeks left.”
“Ziva is not doing this.”
“You’re making a choice too, Roberta.”
He turned to face me.
“If Nolan dies, you’ll know you could have stopped it.”
I stared at him.
“Who is the mother?”
I had asked him four times that week.
His jaw tightened every time.
“Someone who knows how to put her child first.”
I laughed.
“You mean someone who knows how to sleep with another woman’s husband?”
He left the room without another word.
I stood there alone, surrounded by pictures of a dying boy I had never met.
A boy my daughter was apparently supposed to save.
***
The next Friday, I went to pick Ziva up from school.
I stood outside her classroom like I always did, waiting for her to come running toward me.
Instead, her teacher walked over.
“Mrs. Riggs? Ziva’s father already picked her up.”
The words didn’t make sense.
“What?”
“Mr. Riggs came about an hour ago. He said there was a family matter.”
My blood turned to ice.
Jace never picked her up.
He barely knew which classroom was hers.
“When?” I asked.
“During art class.”
I was already pulling out my phone.
Voicemail.
I called again.
Voicemail.
I ran to the car so fast I nearly dropped my keys.
He took her.
Dear God, he took her.
My hands shook so badly I could barely start the engine.
I called again.
Straight to voicemail.
Where did he take my baby?
Home?
His office?
The hospital?
Which hospital?
My heart slammed against my ribs.
He took her to do it.
He took my baby to that hospital without me.
I called one last time.
This time I left a message.
“Jace, if you touch her, I will burn your life to the ground.”
Then I threw the phone onto the passenger seat and drove.
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