Fault Line [Completed]

Chapter One

I stared at my mother's corpse lying on her office floor. My grip tightened on the bloody letter opener in my right hand. The shock of the situation came, the adrenaline left, and I slowly took a deep breath. Now focus, Jane. I told myself. First off . . . you have got to stay calm. You can't pull anything off if you aren't calm.

Calm. Deep breaths. Stay calm. Breathe. This was the mantra that I repeated to keep myself sane. My mantra.

That's what I had to do. Stay calm. Another deep breath. Tears gathered in my eyes and I swiped at them. Not now. Not ever again. She did this to herself. I tightened my grasp on the letter opener once again, my knuckles whitened from the force. I closed my eyes.

What did I do? How could I do this? How are we ever going to get over this? I won't let the girls suffer through this. I'll fix this . . . for the girls.

I will not get caught, I won't. If I am arrested, then who's going to take care of the girls. Jordan won't, he already has college and work. I don't know if Aunt Mallory is up for taking the girls, not after the long fights she's been having with her husband. I might be able to get grandma and grandpa to take care of them. Maybe if I am caught they would go-

No. They will not go there. I had to protect the girls. I had to. I was their only hope.

I walked into the kitchen and grabbed an old towel from the cabinet under the sink. Wiping my fingerprints off of the letter opener, I threw it across the room. It had her blood on it, but not my prints. I checked my shirt and saw a small amount of blood on there. Crap. Entering the bathroom, I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror. I noticed that some blood was splattered on my face.

It was really going well, wasn't it? I threw the water on, leaning my face towards the faucet. I washed my face, letting the water run down my neck to the collar of my blue shirt. Keeping my eyes closed, I blindly opened the cabinet down under the sink and searched for a towel. I grabbed one and quickly dried my face. My hands and fingernails were spotted in blood, so I cleaned those as well. A small voice said my name as I scrubbed my palms. I looked over; it was my youngest sister, Lana.

She was rubbing her eyes, tears evident on her cheeks. I gasped; she should be playing upstairs. I couldn't let her find Mom.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" I asked, continuing to work my hands under the water.

"Megan stole my book." She sniffed. If I wasn't frantically trying to clean up the mess I made, I would have laughed.

"Tell her that Jane said to give it back. If she wants her own book then I will buy her one." I looked back to hands, they were cleaner, but they still were too dirty for me.

"She said she wanted that one. I told her it was mine!" She cried; tears flowed out of the corner of her eyes. I made the decision to dry my hands and approach her. Enveloping her in a hug, I told her I would take care of it.

"In the meantime, sweetie, go finish your puzzle. Don't talk to Megan, and don't let her get to you. Just focus on your puzzle."

She nodded.

"Good girl, now I have a few things I need to take care of before I talk to Megan. So just go upstairs until I'm done, okay?"

She nodded once more, sniffling as she turned around toward the stairs.

I sighed as I returned to the bathroom to finish removing the evidence off of my hands. I was about to turn on the water when Lana asked a question that made me freeze.

"Where's mama?"

I swallowed, a task more difficult than I ever imagined. "She's in her office, getting ready for Mrs. Dixton's session. Don't bother her, Lana. She's very busy." I lied. I had to. I hate lying to Lana. But there was nothing else I could do.