Hours Before

[Leona Mills' story]

I've known for a long time that my daughter would kill me.

Angie told me. Not in so many words. That wouldn't be very Angie-like. But she told me enough. I've been on the run ever since.

Oh, there have been other reasons. Look up from your toothbrush one day and see a rotting monster in the mirror. Suck the age out of something to get your face back. Touch another person that way for the first time. Now you try to go on with life. Sleep next to someone you love. Hold your child. No.

I know Angie judges me silently. But I would make my choices again. Even when Rebel blackmailed me to help him, in his quiet way. Even when my cover as Linda Niles fell apart and agents stole my life. Yes, even when I ended up in that coffin at the freak show. It was the beginning of penance: the expressions on people's faces when they saw who I really am, inside and out. A monster who abandons her child.

But today it all stops. The battle at the circus was won, but Victor and Anna lie in Danko's prison, and Rebel won't speak to me. I've no more places to run.

• There's only one way out...