Izzie flinched. Her hands rose in front of her, and she screamed again. Wallace cursed. “Sit down, Lizzie. I’m not here to hurt you, honey.”
The girl was shaking, terrified. No wonder.
Wallace looked at Jennifer. “Well, you’re a mother. Help her calm down. I need to think.”
“She’s not our daughter, Wallace. She’s definitely not a child if she’s been screwing around with Allen Jacobson,” Jennifer said in a calm, even tone. She had always managed to handle herself in times of turmoil. Much better than Wallace ever could. “We buried Elizabeth twenty-six years ago, remember?”
“Of course, I know that.” He did. It was just…too hard now to keep it straight. “I killed her.”
Jennifer’s expression softened. “No, you didn’t. It was just bad luck. What do you call it? A genetic anomaly. Nothing we could have done would have changed it.”
“But I…should have been able to fix it. Did you know…it’s curable now? Dr. Lanning found a procedure that works now. Not like it was twenty-six years ago. I helped him. I helped him. I wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for Elizabeth.”
It was Wallace’s greatest accomplishment. He liked to think he’d helped save thousands of children’s lives. Maybe his life wasn’t going to be completely wasted.
“I know. What are we doing here, Wallace? I really don’t want to talk to one of your whores.”
He pulled in a breath. “Don’t call her that. She’s just an innocent kid I hurt. When I was angry at you.”
Wallace had his hand on the trigger. He lifted it. Toward the two women he never wanted to hurt again. But…
He had a mess to clean up. This was it. “Tell her, Jennifer. Everything that you did to hurt her. Everything.”
Izzie was still frozen. He had her trapped, and he knew it.
Wallace stepped toward. She screamed again. Izzie tried to run. He could almost feel his little girl’s terror now.
He raised the gun one more time. “No! Don’t move. Sit down.”