Betrayal - Fern Michaels [89]
Debbie and the girls had gone shopping as usual. He had been searching for a pack of matches, of all things. He’d taken to enjoying a pipe now and then, but only when the girls were out of the house. Even though Debbie smoked Kool cigarettes like they were going out of style, he couldn’t find a damned match to save his life. He’d searched the drawers in the kitchen. Nothing. Then he remembered Debbie sometimes lit up in bed, of all places. He went to their bedroom in search of a light. What he discovered changed his life forever. How he wished he’d never started smoking a pipe.
He knew Debbie wrote in a diary, a journal, whatever the hell they called them nowadays. He wasn’t the least bit interested in learning her innermost thoughts or deep dark secrets. Whatever she wrote about, he was sure it would be of no interest to him whatsoever. The search for matches had certainly changed that.
As he’d rummaged through the bedside table drawer, he found her journal lying open, her schoolgirl curlicues glaring up at him. It wasn’t the handwriting that got his attention. It was the words.
I told Sara she had to do this. I promised I would make it worth her while for the rest of her life. She didn’t seem to give a damn one way or another. She told me she knew about Emily, and that was all it took. Sara didn’t like her sister anyway. Though I don’t like the fact that my two girls hate each other, I have found a way to make it work for me. Don would kill me if he ever found this out. He won’t. He’s too busy trying to make a good impression on those worthless bastards he works for. Did I pick a loser or what? I should’ve gone after Alex when I had the chance. He’d offered to take care of me and the child, but he never mentioned marriage. I wanted all or nothing. I sure as hell wasn’t going to be Alex Rocket’s handy piece of ass. I thought there was hope for Don. See what I get for thinking?
The next entry overwhelmed him.
Yes! That son of a bitch was convicted! I told Sara she should consider acting. She would get an Oscar for her performance.
He’d never read any farther. In turmoil over what to do, he decided he’d speak with an attorney. They were bound by attorney-client privilege, so no matter what happened, he would have that security. A week before his scheduled appointment, Alex was killed in a prison brawl. Don had started drinking that very day and hadn’t stopped.
That bitch and his evil spawn had lied about his best friend. They’d killed Alex as surely as the man who’d shoved the knife into his gut.
Daily he lived with the torment. Each day he contemplated taking his life, but then he thought how much satisfaction that would bring Debbie and decided against it.
He went back to bed with a half-full bottle of cheap vodka. Maybe he’d die in his sleep. Sometimes he prayed that he would just so he didn’t have to face another day. He was finding it harder and harder to live with what Debbie had forced Sara to do. Sara didn’t seem to care one way or another. All she thought about was men and food. Don knew she was a slut, and he didn’t care. He kind of hoped she’d get some sort of sexually transmitted disease. Maybe that would slow her down. Debbie had allowed her to go on birth control when she was fifteen. God, he hadn’t said a word. No, all he’d cared about was making money and a name for himself. At least Debbie was right about that.
The icing on the cake, the straw that broke the camel’s back, whatever you wanted to call it—he had always suspected Emily wasn’t his child. But never in a million years had he thought his best friend had slept with his wife. Not good old Alex. He was too good to do something so . . . male.
Emily sure was a chip off Alex’s old block. She loved animals. Hell, she was studying to be a veterinarian. Alex would be proud of her had he lived.
Don wondered if Alex had ever suspected that he knew of the affair between him and Debbie. If Alex had, he’d certainly never given it away. Just goes to show you how much you think you know