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Not since their high school days has she ever had reason to distrust him, but she’d overheard his terse conversation earlier. It wasn’t much to go by from his cryptic responses, but just hearing Misty’s name along with everything else that’s been going on in their small town here lately was enough for her to put the pieces together.
‘The kids are playing video games in their rooms; we should have a few minutes at least before they need us for something. What did Misty do now?” It had been years since she’d had anything to do with the girl that was once her best friend. She’d never forgiven the other woman for having her husband’s first child, robbing her of that honor.
Even though James had not slept with that viper, the fact still remained that she’d carried his child, a part of him, inside her. She hasn’t let on in years that it still bothered her deep inside, and she’s never regretted making her husband promise that he’d never have anything to do with the child. Her hate had extended that far and had never waned in all these years. But now…
CHAPTER 27
James rubbed the back of his neck in that nervous habit he’s had since childhood as he contemplated what if anything to tell his wife. He well remembered the trauma she’d suffered because of Misty’s pregnancy and the hell she’d been through after the child was born. He’d do anything not to relive those days, not to put her through anything like it again.
Cora stepped down from the top step and came to stand in front of him, looking up at him with a look of desperation in her eyes. She was almost afraid to hear what he had to say but admitted that deep down inside, she knew this day would come. She’d lived with the fear that Misty and her child would somehow interrupt the life they’d built for them and their own children.
It had taken her a hell of a long time to live with the fact that someone else had given birth to her husband’s first child. An honor she’d always seen as her own. She knew that her hate for the child was misplaced, though she never actively hated the little girl, just the circumstances of how she came to be. But it was still hard for her to even see the child.
It had been years since she’d had to until Misty and her new husband bought the house where she’d grown up, the scene of the crime. That had only dragged everything up again, and she’s been living on tenterhooks ever since. She’d been hearing the whispers around town about the husband and knew from the general consensus that most thought he was innocent.
Knowing what she knows about Misty and the fact that chaos follows wherever she goes, she was pretty sure that there was something to the story. “She killed someone.” James’ voice broke into Cora’s internal reverie, bringing her up short. “Come again.” Her body went cold from head to toe, and she felt as if she were trapped in a tunnel as James gave her a play-by-play of what he’d learned down at the station.
“Honey!” James clasped her shoulders to keep her from falling when she stumbled back. Behind them, the door opened, and their twelve-year-old daughter stood there with an odd look on her face as tears ran down her cheeks. “Emily, what is it? What are you doing there?” Cora moved to go to her daughter, but the girl stepped back.
“She stands outside the window a lot looking in. I used to wonder why she did that. I thought it was because her family was mean, and she just liked ours.”
“Em, you saw her?”
“Yes, dad, I did.” She turned her attention to her dad. “The kids at school used to tease her sometimes before her stepdad moved back here. I’ve seen her cry… And all the time, she was my sister.”
Emily turned to run back into the house with both parents calling after her. “I think we should leave her for now; let her calm down.”
James was tempted to follow his wife’s lead on this one as well, but something told him that if he didn’t comfort his child right now, he’d lost something fundamental in their relationship.
“No, I’ll go talk to her; this is my mess.” He didn’t wait around to argue but headed inside after his child. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but he knew that leaving it like this was not an option.
“Emily had run to her room and flung herself across her bed in tears. She wasn’t sure if to be upset or scared.
When she’d sent that message to the whole school exposing Marissa from the time she’d tried to catfish her dad, she had no idea that all of this was going on. She felt a spurt of anger and jealousy that confused her even more. She was jealous that she wasn’t her daddy’s only little girl anymore, but even more angry at the fact that her parents had lied to her all her life.
