A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [8]
“Excuse me, but why wouldn’t you want me to call Griffin to go over and check on Erica?” she asked him. “He lives only a few miles from her so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
He frowned. “That has nothing to do with it and you know it. You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You’re deliberately putting Griffin in Erica’s face every chance you get. When are you going to accept the fact that our daughter has fallen in love and it isn’t with the man you picked out?”
That statement hit a nerve that was completely raw. “She would have listened to me, possibly even considered my position, if you had backed me up on the matter, Wilson.”
He all but slammed his tumbler down on the coffee table. “When are you going to realize it’s not about you, Karen? Our daughter has fallen in love. That in itself should make you happy.”
She waved off his words with an elegant hand. “Happy? The very thought makes me want to have a stiff drink. Spare me the spiel about love, Wilson. It has nothing to do with our daughter. We raised her to expect the finer things in life. Love won’t keep those expectations coming her way. My ancestors, yours and the Hayes’s have established their places in Ohio’s history. We aren’t regular people and everyone in this town knows it. They go out of their way to give us the respect we deserve. The respect our forefathers always intended for us to get. The notion of Erica leaving Hattersville is bad enough, but she plans to get a professional job, for crying out loud.”
“A little hard work never killed anyone. That little glamour job as librarian you made sure was dropped in her lap is a joke and she knows it. She’s always resented it and only took it to keep peace between you two.”
She stared at him for a moment and then said, “A person born of both Sanders and Delbert blood should not have to work. There are enough people in the lower classes capable of handling the manual labor.”
Wilson pressed his lips together to keep from coming right out and calling his wife a snob. She would probably take it as a compliment, anyway. Over the years he’d been tempted more than once to deliberately plunge the company into bank ruptcy so that she could see how it felt to be one of those less fortunate souls, those same people she looked down her nose at. He knew she went to bed each night thinking she’d done her Christian duties by giving her time to make life just a little better for those she considered inferior.
“Whether you think I should call Griffin or not, Wilson, our daughter is missing.”
He rolled his eyes. “Cut the drama, Karen. Erica is not missing. She probably went out for the evening. I talked to her earlier today and she mentioned April was in town. The two of them are probably together somewhere.”
He saw in his wife’s eyes the frown she couldn’t hide. Erica’s friendship with April North was another thorn in her side, something she’d always considered an evil. He’d always been proud of Erica for standing up to her mother on that particular issue, refusing to let Karen choose her friends, just as he was proud of Erica for refusing to let Karen manipulate her into marrying Griffin.
“Well, either we let Griffin verify she’s all right or I’m calling Bob.”
Bob Denison was the chief of police in Hattersville. Wilson was well aware that his wife had practically bankrolled the man’s last couple of reelection campaigns, which put him in Karen’ back pocket pretty damn deep.
“Don’t involve Bob,” he said, reaching for his jacket. “I’ll go check on Erica myself.”
He didn’t add that he needed a reason to get out of the house, a reason to dismiss himself from her presence. Little did she know that, although she would badger him on occasion about the hours