Chapter 26: Jo Beth

The four of them ate stew and pretended like everything was fine, Elizabeth gushing over the tasty feijoada, how well seasoned the pork was, how they’d cooked the beans just perfectly.

“It was all Mitch,” Magda said with false modesty.

“No, no, Magda’s the one who taught me to make feijoada in the first place. I couldn’t have done it without her help.”

Jo Beth glared at them, thinking again how much they seemed a couple, how convenient it would be for them both if she just disappeared, leaving behind the baby and all its inheritance. But Elizabeth didn’t seem to notice, though she wasn’t oblivious to Jo Beth’s angst. When it was time for Elizabeth to leave she gave Jo Beth an extra-long hug and Jo Beth clung to her mother like she’d never see her again. “I’ll be over bright and early tomorrow morning,” Elizabeth said, forced to wriggle from her daughter’s grasp.

After Mitch finally escorted Elizabeth through the door, Magda started clanging around in the kitchen, doing dishes, creating an angry symphony of running water and reverberations, as she furiously scrubbed away. Jo Beth refused to be intimidated and strolled in for a second helping of dessert. The moment Jo Beth was within ten feet of her, Magda spun around and shot her a look of such poison that a rattlesnake would be jealous.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she shouted.

“Nothing. I’m just peckish,” Jo Beth calmly walked over to the counter, where the glass dish with the rest of the flan sat, but she had to nudge Magda out of the way to get to it. Magda was holding a large wooden spoon and before Jo Beth could duck away, Magda whipped it through the air so that its flat, wide end landed on Jo Beth’s cheek in a cutting blow. The shudder of pain was so concentrated that Jo Beth dropped the glass dish in surprise and it landed in shards among her bare feet. Magda was wearing shoes, clunky heals that made her taller than Jo Beth, and she walked over the glass, crunching it into hundreds of hazardous pieces. And she still held that menacing spoon in her grip.

“You think I’m trying to hurt you, Jo Beth?” She laughed. “I ought to have, after you stole my boyfriend, sabotaged our business, fed me laxatives, and took over my apartment for months while I wait for your brat to be born. But I tried to be nice. I went out of my way to forgive you and make you comfortable.” Her nostrils flared and her olive complexion reddened as she stood ominously close. “And instead of saying thank you, you tell your mom that I tried to poison you?”

Jo Beth squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. Maybe she was as vulnerable as she’d ever been, barefoot and pregnant in Magda’s kitchen, but that didn’t mean she had to take this crap. “I was just telling it like it is.”

Magda whacked her with the spoon again, but this time the blow landed on her neck and for a moment Jo Beth couldn’t breathe. Involuntarily she doubled down, planting her knees and palms into the floor, into the sharp debris of glass. As soon as Jo Beth could find her voice, she cried out in pain.

“Sorry,” Magda said. “But you’ve had that coming for a while.” Then she dropped the spoon and extended her hand. Jo Beth realized that accepting Magda’s help was the only way she could move from crouching to standing without digging more glass into her skin, so she took her hand and Magda yanked her up. Once they stood, face to face, Magda leaned forward and kissed her briefly on the lips. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I won’t kill you. Only crazy people are murderers.” She placed her palm against Jo Beth’s belly. “And I’m the sanest one here.”

“I’ll tell Mitch what you did and said.”

Magda’s thick brows narrowed as she squinted her almond-shaped eyes. “He won’t buy it.”

“Yes, he will! He’ll take one look at my face, knees, and hands, and he’ll believe every word.”

Magda bent down and picked up the largest remaining piece of glass from the floor. With her eyes boring into Jo Beth’s, she dragged the shard’s sharpest edge right below her delicate cheek bone and dug in until it bled.

“Stop!” Jo Beth cried, snatching the glass from her grip. “That could scar. You’re insane.”

“No, you’re insane, and everyone knows it. I’ll tell them that you attacked me first. After your behavior tonight, your mother and Mitch won’t doubt me.”

Before Jo Beth could argue, there was noise from the hallway and the sound of Mitch entering through the apartment door. “Hello?” He called. “I’m back.”

Magda gave Jo Beth a sneering smile before she answered him. “Mitch!” Her voice was frantic and loud. “Help!” She tromped over the broken glass to meet him at the entryway. “She’s gone crazy, Mitch! You have to help!”

Mitch grunted his surprise and came rushing into the kitchen. “What the hell happened?” he cried. At that moment, his eyes moved down to Jo Beth’s hands, and she realized she was still holding the bloodied piece of glass that Magda had used to cut herself.

Jo Beth rolled her eyes before answering Mitch. “This totally isn’t what it looks like.”