Mammy stops near a door, peeks outside, then holds me tighter as she walks slowly, her back to the wall until we reach our garden. It’s massive as well with long fences and wires. They appear like the devil’s horns from the creepy show Uncle was watching while I spied from afar.

She stops beside a wire and pulls out her phone from her trousers, then puts it to her ear. Her foot taps rapidly on the ground as she listens through the phone.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Her hold around me tightens the more she focuses on the phone, then she puts her thumb in her mouth, chewing on her nails. Daddy doesn’t like it when she does that.

“Pick up…pick up…” she murmurs. “Bleeding hell.”

“Mammy, isn’t that a bad word?”

“Shh, Kyle.”

“But ye said it was bad.”

“I’m sorry, baby boy, I shouldn’t have said that.” She smiles. “Mammy is just a little excited. Forgive me, okay?”

“Okay. I won’t repeat it in front of Daddy.”

“Good boy.”

“What are we doing in the garden, Mammy?”

“I’m waiting for a friend to come to pick us up.”

“You have a friend?”

“Aye.” Something weird passes in her eyes. “He’s an old friend. I think ye’ll like him.”

“Why haven’t I seen him before?”

“Because I knew him before ye were born, baby boy.”

“Am I going to meet him now?”

“Hopefully.”

“Is he going to play wizards and ogres with us?”

“We’ll try to invite him.”

A soft sound comes from behind us. It’s as quiet as a bird landing on a dead leaf, but Mammy freezes and places a finger on my mouth.

I stay silent. I don’t mind staying here, but if Mammy is leaving, I want to go with her too.

“All clear,” a man says in a rough, harsh way. I think it’s Luke, Daddy’s best man in black. He came all the way from Ireland.

Daddy is the big boss man from Ireland, too. I had fun when we went there months ago, but I don’t think Mammy did.

She told me she’s from Northern Ireland and Daddy is from Dublin. Apparently, Northern Ireland and Ireland are different countries, but they speak similarly. Not too similar, though, because Daddy hates it when I speak like Mammy. But I like how Mammy talks; it’s how angels speak. Daddy knows nothing.

Luke and his voice disappear, but she continues holding my mouth for a long time before she releases a breath.

She then puts the phone to her ear again. “Come on…come on.” Her eyes light up even in the dark. “Oh, thank God. Where are you? Yes, I’m at the back gate. I already disconnected the cameras, and it won’t be long before someone finds out. I have mere minutes. Kyle is with me.”

She listens for a little, then she trembles like a child in the cold. I stroke her cheek with my tiny fingers to make her feel warmer like she does to me.

Mammy is too focused on the phone as she whispers, “He knows. It won’t be long before he kills us.”

Her lips pale as she listens a wee more. I hate the one she’s speaking to because he’s making Mammy unhappy. I’m gonna punch him.

“What do you mean you’re attacking? That’s not what you promised. You said ye’ll help me get out of here. I need to leave. Ireland and the States aren’t safe for us anymore, and…”

She trails off when loud bangs erupt in the house.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

I flinch in her arms and Mammy holds me close, tears streaming down her cheeks as she speaks to the bad man on the phone. “I trusted ye, a Russian, over my own countrymen—how can ye do this to me?”

She doesn’t wait for a response as she shoves the phone in her pocket and runs. The pops are getting closer, like in the stories she told me while doing the sound effects.

Even though she’s trembling, she doesn’t stop until she reaches a small wall with no wires on top. She grabs my hands and winds them around her neck. “Hold on tight and don’t let go, Kyle.”

“Okay.”

She pushes my hair out of my face and smiles, but it’s filled with tears. “Ye’re such a good boy, sweetheart. Ye shouldn’t have been born into this world. I shouldn’t have brought ye into this chaos. Mammy is so sorry, but I’ll make it better.”

Mammy starts to climb the wall while I’m wrapped around her.

“Where do ye think ye’re going, Amy?”

Mammy gasps.

My head slowly follows the voice to stare at Daddy. His dark eyes shine in the night and blood trails down his knuckles ’cause he likes to punch people.

He looks like one of the angry men in that painting with angels.

Mammy hops down and holds me hard as she faces him. “Just let us go, Niall.”

“Let ya go where?”

I try to look at him, but she wraps a hand around my head to stop me, pushing my nose and mouth against her shoulder.

“Ye already know.”

“Already know what?”

“I just want to leave. We’re not safe!”

“Not safe? I gave ye everything. Everything. Ye were a nobody and I made something out of ye, and this is how ye repay me? Guess no one can change a whore, can they?”

“Don’t say those words in front of Kyle,” she whispers. “At least respect me in front of him.”

“Did ye respect me? Did ye fucking think of me?” he roars. “Take him, Luke.”

“Nooo,” Mammy shrieks as Luke snatches me from her.

I try to hold on to her with all my might, but Luke wrenches me with steel-like arms. Her hits and shrieks fall on deaf ears. I try to bite him, but he doesn’t even wince in pain.

“Mammy!” Tears fall down my cheeks and I wipe them with the back of my hand ’cause Daddy doesn’t like it when I cry.

She stares at me for a second, not bothering to wipe her face, then turns to Daddy. “Don’t hurt him. Please.”

“Ye are the one who hurt him when ye betrayed me, Amy. Once wasn’t enough, so ye stabbed me in the back two times. Now, ye will have to pay.” He stares at his other man in black, Patrick. “Take her away.”

“Please…please, Niall. I promise I’ll be good. I p-promise.”

“Ye made that same promise the other time as well, but did ye keep it? Did ye honor me like I honored ye? I should’ve listened when they said a whore will always be a whore.” He motions at Patrick with his head. “Lock her up.”