September 23, 2003, was Deirdre Kathleen O'Donovan's third birthday. It was also the day her mother's life changed forever.

It started out innocently enough. Gabe was in the bathroom getting ready for work, and Zoya was getting ready for a day out with her daughter.

"We are going to Rumble Tumble this morning, Dee! Won't that be fun?" Zoya said to her daughter.

"Rumble Tumble! Rumble Tumble!" Deirdre sang, jumping around.

"I'll be at the office all day." Gabe adjusted his tie and gave his wife a quick peck on the lips. "You girls have fun."

As soon as Gabe had driven away, Zoya took her daughter outside to her own car and began the trip to the indoor playground.

When they arrived, Deirdre made a beeline for the indoor slide. It was her favorite toy. Zoya sat in the area where the other adults waited. They'd been there a couple of hours when Deirdre went to her mother in tears.

"I went potty in my pants, Mommy!" she sobbed.

"Why did you not tell me you had to go?" Zoya demanded.

"I forgot!" the little girl wailed. "Please don't be mad, Mommy!"

"I am not mad, but I forgot to bring another pair of panties with me, so we will have to go home now," said Zoya, mentally kicking herself for forgetting. She knew Deirdre tended to have accidents when she got excited.

The drive home seemed to take much longer than the drive there had, and when she reached her home, Zoya saw Gabe's car in the driveway.

"That is strange," she said to herself. "He told me he would be at the office all day. I hope nothing is wrong."

As she entered the house, she noticed it looked as if no one was home. It was still in the same condition it had been in when she had left that morning.

Then she heard a muffled, unmistakably feminine giggle coming from the direction of the master bedroom. Moving closer to the door, she pressed her ear against it and heard Gabe moaning. She checked to see if the door was locked. It wasn't, and when it flew open, she saw her husband in bed with an attractive brunette. They were both completely naked.

Too shocked to say anything, Zoya could only stare.

"Oh, shit," Gabe mumbled as he struggled to find his clothes.

"You told me they'd be gone!" the brunette whined.

"Who the hell are you?" Zoya demanded. Struggling to find her own clothing, the brunette didn't say anything.

Zoya turned to Gabe. "How could you do this to me?" She felt the hot tears threatening to spill from behind her eyelids.

"You'd better get out of here," Gabe, who was now fully dressed, told the brunette. She scurried away without another word.

"I thought you weren't coming back until sometime this afternoon," Gabe said to his wife.

For Zoya, it was as if someone, or something, else had taken over her body, and she was merely watching from the sidelines. She saw herself take a step toward Gabe and slap him, hard, across the face. As his hand moved up to touch the red mark, she thought to herself, did I actually do that?

"Mommy!" cried Deirdre. "Why did you hit Daddy?"

Without answering, Zoya snatched up her daughter and took her to the bathroom, where she changed her panties and cleaned her up.

"We are going to stay with Nana and Deda," she said as she threw clothing and other items into her suitcase and Deirdre's smaller one. Gabe watched without comment as she did so. When she was finished, she handed her daughter the smaller suitcase, then took her by the hand and grabbed the handle of the larger suitcase.

"You'll be back," Gabe sneered as she headed for the door.

Elspeth was in the kitchen kneading dough when she heard the doorbell ring. She glanced out the window, then hurried to open the door.

"Zoya! Come in, come in. I thought you were taking Dee to Rumble Tumble for her birthday."

Zoya tried to speak, but all she could do was sob. Elspeth reached for her and pulled her into a caring embrace. Yuri, who was whittling wood in the craft room, heard the commotion and came to see what was going on. Deirdre ran to him.

"Deda, Mommy hit Daddy!"

Yuri frowned. "What is going on?"

Zoya choked out her story. Yuri's face turned red with rage.

"I will kill him!"

"Come in here and sit down, sweetheart." Elspeth put her arm around Zoya and led her into the living room and to a sofa. "You've had a very upsetting morning. You need to calm down so you can think more clearly."

"All I know is I never want to see him again!" Zoya cried.