I have been too long in the bathroom with my apples.

“Sorry,” I tell her, resuming my spot on the floor.

We make lunch and eat. Then she hands me Suzannah and I straighten the doll’s hair.

Half an hour passes slowly. It is late afternoon and there is no sign of Mick. Flashes of him kissing my daughter in the police car come and go. But mostly come and stay.

Hannah and Suzannah have been discussing their mothers again. Alice likes this and I need this. Yes, I have my apples, but I will not waste one opportunity to gather information. To make inroads into my little prison guard. Into her head. Into her heart.

What she did today was extraordinary. Not because of the logistics of getting the apples. But because she knows I am planning something devious. Wrong. Hurtful. She knows, and she helped me anyway.

Then she served me my milk and I drank it down.

Oh, the games we play, Alice and I.

“It makes me so sad,” Suzannah says. She has been telling Hannah a terrible story about a fight her parents had and how her mommy still won’t be happy. Now she’s run away and Suzannah is afraid she will never come back.

“I know,” Hannah says, and she reaches through the bars to give Suzannah a plastic doll hug.

“Thank you, Hannah. You always make me feel better.” Suzannah pauses long enough for the sweet moment to pass. Then—

“Do yours ever fight?” Suzannah asks.

I swear I can see Coy Face run all the way down from Alice’s face, through her arm and fingers and onto the stupid plastic doll.

“What do you mean?” Hannah asks.

“Do they ever get mad at each other? Do they yell sometimes?”

I am desperate to get back to my apples. I need to take out the seeds and grind them. I need to do this before we can bake the muffins.

Time passes. Mick is with my daughter. A bead of sweat rolls down the side of my face.

Hannah finally answers.

“He loves my mommy,” Hannah says finally. “He loves her so much it makes him cry.”

The image of Mick with my daughter leaves for a brief moment as I try to think about what this means. I can’t picture Mick crying.

But then suddenly I can. Suddenly, my perspective shifts. Love can make people crazy. It can make them do crazy, evil things.

“Because she’s so beautiful?” Suzannah asks.

Hannah nods.

“With her real blond hair and her thin body?”

Hannah nods again.

Alice reaches through the bars and takes Suzannah from me. She lays her on the ground, and then lays Hannah down beside her. Alice leans in close and so I lean in close. She doesn’t want Dolly to hear.

“I have to show you something. It has to be a secret.”

Yes. Please. Tell me your secrets.