Conversation started up again, the war this time, and she excused herself from the table and walked into the kitchen, where her mother was using an ice pick to chop ice on the sink counter.

She took a deep breath. “We have to talk,” she said.

Her mother did not even look up. “About what?”

“You have to stop seeing that girl,” she said. “Stop seeing Dawn.”

A moment of silence.

“So you know,” her mother said flatly.

Laurie nodded.

Her mother continued to chop ice. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean, ‘you can’t’?”

“I don’t want to.” Her mother faced her, not embarrassed but defiant, the expression giving her already too-serious face an even grimmer cast.

“Jesus.”

“She does for me what your father can’t do anymore.”

“The girl is evil,” she told her mother.

Her mother looked away, continued chopping. “You don’t think I know that?”

“Then why—”

“I am the mother here. You are the daughter. I do not want to talk about this with you.”

Laurie pounded a fist on the counter. “We have to talk about it!”

Her mother looked up at her, surprised, apparently taken aback by the vehemence of her response.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Mother, but I’m not a child anymore. I’m an adult. Aren’t you even a little curious why that is?”

Her mother said nothing.

Laurie reached out, grabbed her mother’s hand. “Dawn will kill you,” she said. “She wants us all out of the House, she wants to leave the House unattended, and she will do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

“Billington won’t let that happen.”

“Billington is gone!” Laurie said. “He’s probably dead! She probably killed him!”

There was silence between them.

Her mother coughed. “You don’t understand.”

“No, you don’t understand! You think Dawn’s doing this for her health? You think she cares about you? She wants you out of the House. And if that means she has to kill you, then so be it.”

Her mother was already shaking her head.

“Father’s seeing her, too.”

At that, her mother stiffened. Laurie had not been intending to reveal that fact, had not planned to say anything about it, had been hoping she could talk to both parents individually and get them each to stop seeing the girl, and she instantly regretted spilling the beans. The horrible thought occurred to her that she was the one responsible for sending her mother after her father, for setting into motion the events that led to her parents’ deaths.

Had she done Dawn’s work for her?

“Mother,” she said earnestly. “You have to put a stop to this. You can’t let her run your life. You’re just a pawn to her. She’ll use you up and toss you aside.”