A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [108]
Erica’s mouth dropped open from the news.
“And he plans to divorce me and marry her,” her mother added.
Erica frowned. “Is that what he said?”
“No, that’s what I’ve prepared myself for and that’s fine. I’ll just live my life alone until I die.”
Erica’s heart took a nosedive and a part of her wished she hadn’t asked to go home now.
“So I hope you understand why I didn’t mention his call,” Karen said. “It was just too devastating to think about and I was determined to put him and that tramp he’s been messing with out of my mind.”
“I can understand that.” She reached across the table to take her mother’s hand in hers. “Mom, I’m truly sorry.”
Her mother nodded. “So am I. Maybe you’ve been right all along. Your father and I had an arranged marriage and things didn’t work out. I guess marrying for love is the only way to assure your heart won’t get broken.”
Those words were too much for Erica to hear. She wanted to tell her that marrying for love wasn’t what she thought it would be. On the verge of tears, she pushed back from the table. “Excuse me, Mom, I need some time alone for a minute.”
Karen watched as Erica quickly left the room. Poor baby. The smile that formed on her lips couldn’t be withheld. She lifted her glass to take a sip of her wine. Things were going as planned, and yes, she was ready to go home, as well. The sooner she could get Griffin and Erica together, the better.
If two people were drawn together to console each other’s broken hearts, then so be it.
Rita nibbled on her bottom lip as she waited for Wilson to answer the phone. “It’s Rita,” she said as he picked up.
“Rita, how are you, love?”
She hung her head and took a deep breath. Such words coming from him should not make her heart beat so fast. Should not cause goose bumps to break out over her arms. But they did because no matter how their relationship had begun or how wrong it was to have started in the first place, she loved him. He was her love, like she knew she was his.
It had been over a month since they’d been together and she knew if given the word he would hop the first plane to Dallas to see her. But they had agreed they would not be together, could not be together, until he was no longer a married man.
“There’s a problem between Erica and Brian,” she said, her heart almost breaking just thinking about it.
“What problem? I talked to Erica a few days ago. She called me from the airport on her way to Dallas to see Brian.”
“Yes, and someone set him up, Wilson.”
“Set him up? How?”
She spent the next thirty minutes going over in detail what Brian had shared with her a few days ago. He had appeared on her doorstep on the brink of exhaustion. He’d barely been able to eat and had taken time off work to try and pull himself together.
It had been totally heartbreaking for a mother to see her child in such pain but know there was nothing she could do about it. Even now she was worried about him, although he had returned to work today and claimed he was doing better. He had tried calling Erica but she refused his calls.
“There is no way Brian would cheat on Erica, Wilson,” she said, almost in tears.
“I know, sweetheart. To be honest with you, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if Karen didn’t have something to do with it.”
Rita’s breath caught. That had crossed her mind originally, but there were so many things that had happened that were so out of Karen’s reach. “How is that possible when she was at Lake Tahoe?” His suspicions were beginning to sound like a demented soap opera.
“I know, but over the years my wife has kept secrets of her own.”
“Really?”
“Nothing involving an affair or anything, as far as I know, but a secret I discovered last year regarding her sister.”
“Her sister? Erica once mentioned her mother had one sister who’d been in a car accident and went into a coma and later died.”
“Yes,