Betrayal - Fern Michaels [32]
She was so very tired. Mentally, she’d never been this tired. Kate let her mind wander as she drifted off.
Alex looked like he was a hundred years old. His skin, once a warm brown from the sun, was pale and wrinkled like parchment paper. There was no color to his eyes, the pigment gone. His hair had turned completely white.
“I told you we’d get through this, Alex. Why’d you have to go and get yourself locked up? We were winning, you didn’t have to accept the plea!”
Tears filled Kate’s eyes as she watched her husband through the thick Plexiglas. He’d taken the deal, telling her it was only ten years. Only ten years ...
Kate shot up in the bed like a missile. Sweat beaded her forehead and upper lip. She still wore her jeans and T-shirt. Her heartbeat quadrupled. She looked over at Alex. He still slept. She wouldn’t wake him up. She couldn’t tell him about her dream. As a child, she and her friends had always said, “If you tell a dream before breakfast, it’ll come true.”
Morning was hours away. Kate would not speak of her dream to anyone.
She prayed this wasn’t an omen of things to come.
Chapter 9
“I know you’re lying. You are one sick little girl. I don’t believe you for one minute, you rotten piece of dog poop. Uncle Alex wouldn’t ever do something so . . . so nasty. Especially to a fat pig like you!”
Emily knew she was being hateful to Sara, but at that minute, she just didn’t care. Somehow, she had to help Uncle Alex out of this mess. At fifteen, she didn’t know what she could do, but she was sure to come up with something.
“You don’t know what it’s like, so just shut up. I’ve been abused. Don’t talk to me that way again, or I’ll tell Mommy.” Sara was delighted with her new role as victim and was going to milk it for all it was worth. She’d told Emily it was terrible, the icky things Uncle Alex did to her, and why shouldn’t she get some extra sympathy? Her life was tainted forever. Words she’d overheard their parents use.
“You’re such a liar, Sara. Do you think for one minute anyone is going to believe you? Oh, I know Mom and Dad do, but they’ll soon realize that you’re just doing this to get attention. This isn’t the way to get it, surely you ought to know that by now. But then again, you are just a baby. Twelve years old. Puh-leeze! And go ahead and tell on me. I don’t think anything I do could be as rotten as what you’re doing. I’m ashamed to call you my sister!” Emily slammed out of Sara’s room and headed to her own just down the hall.
She was still in shock over Sara’s accusations. And her parents had actually believed the little liar! They’d talked to the sheriff, and who knew who else they’d told. And Emily knew as well as she knew her name that Sara was making up every detail she’d shared with their parents.
Sara had an appointment with Dr. Chambers tomorrow morning. Dr. Chambers was Emily’s best friend’s mom, who just happened to be a child shrink. Maybe she would ask Amy to snoop into her mother’s files and see what Sara was really up to. Sara should’ve been sent to Dr. Chambers a long time ago.
She wanted to call Aunt Kate, but her parents had forbidden that. However, they couldn’t watch her all the time. She jumped off the bed and went to the piggy bank she had stashed in her bottom drawer. She dumped its contents on top of the bed. Nine dollars and seventy-three cents. That should be enough to make a long-distance call. Without a second thought, Emily hurried to the kitchen. It’d been a while since she’d ridden her bike. That might make her parents suspicious, but she’d