Like Stealing Diamonds From a Blind Girl

Prologue

Like Stealing Diamonds From a Blind Girl

Prologue

"Sweety, can you turn down that noise?" Jacqueline's daughter was listening to that horrific electronic stuff the kids these days called music. It pounded in her brain like a hammer and she could find absolutely no appeal.

"Mom, it's not noise, it's dubstep," her daughter replied curtly.

"Well it's giving me a headache and we still have a long drive ahead of us." They were on their way home from what was supposed to be a relaxing mother-daughter spa weekend but ended up being filled with the usual bickering they never seemed to steer clear of. Jacqueline tried so hard to be good to her daughter, she just wanted them to get along. By the end of the weekend however, they both were dead tired of each other and just wanted to go home.

"But you can't listen to quiet dubstep. It has to be loud." She started bobbing her head furiously and thrashing her hands up and down in the air to a beat that poor Jacqueline just couldn't pick out from among the screeches and the terrible groans. She thought her daughter looked like she was having a seizure. She worried for a moment, then brushed the thought aside as she pressed the button that would make the car switch to play a CD rather than what it was getting from her daughter's Iphone. The noise stopped and soon the car filled with a wildly romantic Chopin.

"Mom!" Blaire called, "I was listening to that."

"Then plug in your headphones. I didn't get you those giant expensive things you begged for so that you could neglect them to blast your noise in my ear."

"My Beats are in the back, so unless you wanna pull over..." Jacqueline sighed, slightly frustrated. She didn't understand her daughter sometimes. Or ever. She didn't know what happened, they used to do everything together. The past year or so she had begun to hate her. Jacqueline's friends who had older daughters warned her this would happen. No girl wanted her mother as her best friend once she was in high school.

"So listen, there's this huge party at Grace's tonight and I need a ride," her daughter all but demanded.

"Sorry, sweety but my car won't be out of the shop until tomorrow and I need to get to Downtown tonight. Your father will have his hands full between getting me there and going to dinner with some important people from his publishers. Isn't there anyone who can take you?" Her daughter cursed under her breath and she pretended not to hear.

"No, Mom. I have to go to this party, and there is no way someone is going to climb the whole stupid drive to our stupid house in the middle of nowhere."

"What about Simon? He was always willing to come get you. And isn't Grace that girl who posted terrible things about you last year on her blog?"

"Simon and I aren't speaking. I'm not asking him for anything. And yes that's her. She's a bitch but her parties are amazing and everyone will be there. I can't miss it."

"Well I'm sorry but you'll need to find a ride."

"Gawdammit that is so unfair!" her daughter screamed. She went to admonish her on her big mouth but there was a click and moments later she was on her knees facing the back, rummaging through the variety of things that had been haphazardly placed on the seats.

"What are you doing?" Jacqueline kept her voice stern.

"I'm getting my Beats," her daughter replied as if it should have been obvious.

"Sit back down this instant. I really, really don't want to get pulled over right now." She huffed and clenched the steering wheel, trying to calm herself. She would not allow her daughter to get the best of her. Again. She took in a deep breath.

"Mom!" her daughter screamed, "Slow down!" Jacqueline looked down at the speedometer. They were going 95 miles per hour. She eased her foot off the gas, but she wasn't looking at the road.

There was a sharp crash that bashed her head into the back of her seat and then for a moment it felt like she was flying. It all happened so fast and yet somehow she caught every detail with perfect clarity. The windshield shattered as her unbuckled daughter flew through it. Her own body seemed to be thrashing against every surface it could find and fierce pain stabbed her from every direction. The airbags all inflated. There was a loud snap and everything went dark. Her last thought: Please, let my daughter live.