A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [77]
Dr. Cobb rubbed his bald head. Karen had wanted him to advise Erica that she should never consider the idea of marrying Brian Lawson and that such a thing could kill her mother. He refused to do that. He would not go that far and destroy all of Erica’s dreams of a marriage filled with love. Already he could tell by the look in her eyes that the thought of even calling off her wedding plans was devastating. At that moment he despised Karen even more for being so damn heartless.
He patted Erica’s hand as he stood up. “I know you have a lot of decisions to make so I’ll leave you for now. Have you contacted your father?”
Erica shook her head as she fought back her tears. “No, I wanted to take care of Mom.”
“Well, I think you need to at least let him know what happened here.”
“Is Mom on medication for her heart?”
“Yes, I wrote her out a prescription last year. I checked and she needs to get a refill. I’ll take care of it and drop them off here later today.” They would be nothing more than sugar pills. Karen had pretty much thought of everything.
“Thanks, Dr. Cobb.”
A half hour later, after the doctor had left and after checking to make sure her mother was still resting comfortably, Erica went back downstairs to stand at the window in the study to look out. She had awakened that morning the happiest woman on earth and now that happiness had been snatched away from her.
She glanced at her watch and wondered if the others had gotten their copies of the pictures. She had checked her phone a few minutes ago and seen that both Brian and her father had tried calling her. After receiving those pictures she had turned off both her phone and her mother’s phone, just in case there were more pictures where those had come from. She needed to return their calls but wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do so. Her mother might prove to be difficult at times but she didn’t deserve this. No married woman did. How long had the affair been going on? Was Rita the reason her father had increased his business trips? Brian had mentioned his mother had been going out of town a lot more, too.
She moved away from the window and suddenly went still when a thought struck her. Had Brian known about the affair and not told her? She closed her eyes and shook her head. She had to believe that wasn’t true.
And who on earth had sent those photos? Evidently it was someone who wanted to destroy not only her life but her mother’s life, as well. There was no doubt in her mind that her mother had rubbed a number of people the wrong way, and there were probably one or two who would like to take her down off her high horse a notch or two. But who would risk her mother’s wrath and take the time to bother?
At the moment the identity of the person who sent the pictures wasn’t important to her. Making sure her mother was taken care of us was, and she would do whatever she needed to do to make sure that happened.
Lori pulled off her earring as she placed the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Everybody knows.”
Lori frowned. “Rita? I can barely hear you. What did you say?”
“I said everybody knows now. Someone sent pictures.”
“Of you and Wilson?”
“Yes,” Rita replied on a choked voice. “I made a mess of things. I was only thinking of my wants and needs and not Brian’s. Now there’s no telling what’s going to happen. Erica probably hates me.”
Lori moved to sit down in the nearest chair. “Honey, please calm down. Are you still in Japan?”
“No, I’m in New York at JFK, waiting to come home on my connecting flight. I have a three-hour layover.”
Rita nodded. “Start at the beginning and tell me everything.”
She did in a trembling voice and had to repeat some parts several times because of crying. “I have to be the most selfish woman on this earth.”
“You’re not, Karen Sanders is. You can’t convince me that woman didn’t have something to do with this,” Lori said angrily.
“It doesn’t matter. What Wilson and I did was wrong and the sad thing about it is that our children might have to pay for it.”
Lori didn’t say anything for a moment, listening