AVRIL'S CASE -BOOK 2

Chapter Nineteen.

         

 

"I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets."

 

- D. H. Lawrence

 

 

 

Cassie blankly stared at Brianna as she tried to process all that she had told her. She placed her index finger on her bottom lip and then she twisted her mouth to the side. "I'm sorry but none of this is making any sense. Please elaborate."

 

"Which part of my story is unclear?" Brianna leaned forward and placed her hands on her laps.

 

"Why would he mark you with Avril's initials, what was special about Avril?"

 

"He marked us before Avril was born. You see, there's something about coincidences that he likes. Those are his initials also, or the initials of someone he loves. No one knows really knows what they mean, we only know it's special to him. With Avril, he wanted to mark her in a way that would be permanent. It was a coincidence that the initial for her surname was a C. That was his first sign, and so he named her Avril and gave her the middle name Blanche, that way she can forever be A.B.C. She was forever special to him."

 

"Then why kill her if she was so special? It makes no sense. This story makes zero sense," Cassie said, frustratedly.

 

"Like you, Avril was very nosy. She knew too much, and she was going to talk. He felt betrayed by her. He was furious. He felt like her mind had been corrupted by her parents. She was no longer pure, she resisted him. She resisted her owner. And he couldn't have that."

 

"So Avril found out about what he's been doing? About what you've been helping him do?''

 

Brianna shook her head. She had a pensive look on her face. She narrowed her eyes and then rested her chin on the back of her hands. "She discovered something else. I don't know what, I don't know how. I tried to ask her, but she always looked paralyzed with fear anytime I did.''

 

"Do you have any suspicion?" Joseph asked.

 

"No," she confessed "but it must have been something big. Something worth killing for."

 

Cassie's chest trembled. She took in a deep breath. Hearing about Avril's death made her feel dizzy. "Why did Avril's parents let you into her life? Weren't they scared you'd try to take her away?"

 

"They don't know I'm Avril's biological mother. I got very close to her mother and she welcomed me into her home. I always offered to babysit Avril when they were away. I gained their unwavering trust. I didn't want to take Avril because I knew I couldn't provide for her the way they could."

 

"Did Avril know that you were her biological mother?'' Joseph asked, deeply invested in the revealing conversation they were having.

 

Brianna nodded. "I never told her. She just knew. One day when I was babysitting her she looked up at me and she called me mum. She was only taking a guess. Maybe she thought we looked alike or maybe she saw that we shared similar features." Cassie took a good look at Brianna, and then she visualized Avril. She saw that they shared the same round nose and full lips. They also shared the same hair colour and skin tone. "My reaction confirmed to her that I was her mother. This was a month before she was killed."