“Hello, Mother,” I said as Arthur slunk up and sat next to me.
“What is the dog doing in the house?” Mother said.
“He—” I stopped. “I just—”
She cut in, “Fine. Fine, dear. As long as they’re not sleeping on the furniture.”
When I thought about all the things that had happened on the various pieces of furniture, sleeping was not the first thing that came to mind.
Mother must have sensed what I was thinking about, because she cut in again, “Where is the other one?”
“Here,” Miriam said coming to join me, right on cue. Max followed close behind. She had a look of relief on her face.
“Oh, you’re still here,” Mother said.
“I… came back,” Miriam said, an obvious lie, just as practiced.
Another twitch at the corners of Mother’s mouth told me what she was thinking. I went downstairs to greet her, and Miriam and the dogs followed.
“Can I get you something to drink?” I offered, not meeting her eyes.
“Of course,” Mother said. “Fetch a bottle of red from the pantry, would you dear?”
“Red?” I said. Mother always referred to wine by estate, varietal, and year. She never said just “red.” Also, it appeared she was playing it safe with an unopened bottle. This last part wasn’t unexpected.
“Hm,” she mused. “I must be a little distracted. I have some exciting news I’d like to share with you. Later, though. It can wait.”
She followed me into the kitchen, and I could feel her eyes watching my every movement. Arthur followed me, too, and I got the sense that Mother would have been satisfied to see me taken right there on the kitchen floor.
When I had the bottle open, I set it on the counter in front of her along with a glass. Now that I looked at the glass, I worried that it didn’t look clean, mostly because of the liquid valium we had smeared on the inside. It wouldn’t be enough to knock her out. We didn’t want to have to carry her down the stairs. For a moment, I didn’t think she would drink, but when she did, I felt myself relax a bit. Now, it was just a matter of time.
“So, dear,” she said to Miriam as she entered with Max in tow, “you returned to finish tutoring Daniella. How generous.”
“Not exactly,” Miriam said. Mother raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. “I’m not her tutor. We’re working together. Your daughter is more than capable.”
“Of course she is,” Mother said dismissively. I felt heat in my cheeks, but tamped down my anger. “How are the dogs? Well behaved, I should hope.”
“They’re fine,” I said. I was no actress, so the plan was to be terse. I was supposed to look as if I was hiding something, and Miriam had suggested that I keep my responses shorter than I might otherwise. I had not understood her reasoning until now, when Mother’s reaction—the look in her eyes—turned gleeful and predatory.
Miriam, however, was an actress. Ever since Mother had come through the door, Miriam’s entire demeanor had shifted to the point where I barely recognized her. She looked tired, stressed, and shamed by something, but too proud to admit any of it. During the preceding days, Miriam would walk carelessly through the house and around the grounds, and if one of the dogs leapt on her from behind, she would gladly offer herself to him then and there. But now, she refused to let Max out of her sight, always keeping both dogs in front of her. If I had not known better, I would have thought she was afraid of him. And clearly, that’s what Mother was thinking. One could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes.
Soon, Mother’s eyes started to become a little glassy and her movements a little more lethargic. It was almost time. I leaned on the counter with my elbows. “You had something you wanted to tell me?” I said. “Some exciting news, right?”
“Oh,” she said, trying to shake off the disorientation. “It is big. But it can wait.”
“Are you sure?” I said.
“Yes, dear,” she said. “Do you have the heat on?”
“No, Mother,” I said.
“I think I need some air,” she said. “And then we’ll talk.”
She tried to rise from her stool at the counter, but had to catch herself. She looked at me and her expression changed. Nothing seemed to make sense to her for a second, and then I saw it. She knew something was wrong. The shock took her legs out from under her.
It took us a few moments to get her back to her feet. It was pathetic. She was babbling and slurring, and I almost felt bad for her. We carefully led her down the stairs into the basement, and it wasn’t until we sat her in the chair in front of the computer monitors that she truly figured out what had happened.
I started playing the videos, starting with the very first encounter, and her eyes watched the screens in shock, at first, and then lust. It was not until the videos showed me willingly getting down on my hands and knees and letting Max mount me as I cooed and whimpered in ecstasy that her lust shriveled into horror.
“No,” Mother said. “How could you?”
“How could I, Mother?” I hissed, straddling her lap and drawing myself close enough that I could feel her rapidly beating heart against my own. “How could YOU?!”
I hadn’t expected to shout. I hadn’t been part of the plan, but here we were. My own mother, the most terrifying person I had ever known, now trembled in front of me. I grabbed her wrist and held it up. She tried to pull away, but I was younger and stronger, and her stupor gave me all the help I needed. Miriam fastened each of the leather cuffs to her wrists as I held them up in turn. Mother regarded them in disbelief, but was too stunned to say anything. It was only when Miriam fastened a collar around her neck that she found her voice.
“Please…” she said softly. “Please don’t do this.”
I stared into her eyes. “It’s too late, Mother,” I said. With that, I began unbuttoning her blouse from the bottom. When at last I undid the top button, I peeled it away. She had taken her attention off the videos to look at me, but they were still running. Straddling her as I was, I could only hear barks, growls, and moans of pleasure and pain. When I unclasped her bra, her attention went back to the videos—anything not to look her daughter in the eyes.
Mothers breasts were, like mine, firm and pale, but had a mother’s roundedness to them. I took one of her pink nipples between my fingers and squeezed. Her eyes met mine again.
“Look at me,” I said. Even when Miriam fastened the cuffs to her ankles, she kept her eyes on me. I nodded my head vaguely back toward the nonstop scenes of bestial depravity. “Why, Mother? Why would you do this to your own daughter? Why would you blackmail me like this?”
“It’s what our family’s always done,” she said, still slurring a little.
I looked at the dogs. “You mean you…?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said. “For me it was… something else.”
“Well,” I said, climbing off her lap, “it ends with us. Stand up.”
She tried to stand, but between the valium, fear, and despair, she wobbled. Miriam steadied her, but only to unzip the back of her skirt. When she finally stood in front of me in only a pair of plain white panties, she again refused to look at me.
“Take off your panties,” I said. Her eyes met mine again. She shook her head. “I can just cut them off,” I added. To help me emphasize the situation, Miriam clicked a leather leash onto one of the steel rings on her collar.