My Mother's Daughter

Chapter 25

One Year later

The Austen Riggs Center, established in 1919, and even recognized internationally as a provider of intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy in a voluntary, open and non-coercive environment. Famous actors and actresses have attested to the successful treatments that have helped individuals who are struggling with psychiatric problems, take better care of their lives. The treatments are so effective that the patients are able to return to society fully re-cooperated after discharge. At least some patients...

A black, heavily tinted Range Rover was parked in the driveway. The only occupant was the driver and his employer. Inside the cobbled stoned building, in a well refurbished office sat Rebecca behind a gleaming polished desk. An identical chair like the one in which she sat, with carved arms and legs, faced her. She wore a jeans jacket, matching faded jeans pants, and a sunflower-yellow studded top. Her hair hung like a silky veil about her shoulders. Dark sunglasses hid her expressive liquid steel eyes.

The door opened and she straightened in her seat. Two guards dressed in white brought in a woman clad also in white, her hair dishevelled and the gown barely skimming her ankles. They placed her in the chair and strapped her wrist to the armrest. Rebecca nodded for them to leave. The door snapped shut and she wondered if it was wise to be alone with the woman. The woman's cheeks were sunken unnaturally as if she lacked nourishment, however, her eyes remained the same; dark and vindictive.

"Good morning Elizabeth." Rebecca said coolly. "I've heard you've been quite a handful. Can't stop being a troublemaker, can you?" The dark eyes became murderous, yet she said nothing.

"It's only been a week Elizabeth, stop looking so sullen. Imagine being here for years, and then when they deem you sane enough to be around civilians, they'll put you in prison to finish serving your sentence. So my advice, keep playing this insane role, and enjoy the luxuries here."

Elizabeth spoke her first words. Her voice filled with venom.

"I'm not crazy you wench! You're the one who made them believe such filthy lies." Rebecca shook her head.

"I didn't make them believe anything. Remember the time when I told you I'd let you expose yourself? Well that is exactly what I made happen. I kept my word." Elizabeth was shocked.

"You're crazier than I am."

"Yet you should be thanking me for letting the judge send you here. You committed murder and all you got was thirty years. You're lucky you didn't get a life sentence. You should be proud." Elizabeth calmed down.

"Where's your father?"

"In the car. What, you didn't really expect he'd want to see you? He despises you and can't even believe he was married to his wife's killer." Her former stepmother laughed.

"You really don't think that I'm going to divorce him do you?"

"You already have." Her stepdaughter replied nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't believe you."

"Did you get a package this morning?"

"I don't think that is any of your business."

"It was empty right?"

"What are you getting at?" Elizabeth replied, confused. How did she know she received an empty package?

"Well you see, I realised you wouldn't want to divorce my father, so the package you received was just a ploy. The delivery forms you signed were actually the divorce papers." Elizabeth's lips parted, aghast. The brat was clever.

"You imp! You got what you wanted, so why are you here?"

"To brag of course! I'm now officially a teenager of the world. Father says that he'll buy me a car as soon as I get my licence. I got a bicycle. We bought a television, and a stereo system so I could play my new pop CDs. I got a cellular phone and well, there's just so much to mention. But to top it all, we sent the servants on vacation, oh, and I almost forgot, Howe got me a puppy."