Crystal Lies - Melody Carlson [38]
She sighed. “Well, it’s an old story, dear. But I hope yours has a happy ending.”
I thought about this. How could my story possibly have a happy ending when it looked like a hopeless tragedy right now?“Did yours?” I asked her.
“Have a happy ending?” She held up her hands. “Look at me. Do I look happy to you?”
“Actually, you do. I mean, I know your husband died about ten years ago, but you seem to be getting along just fine. I see your kids over here all the time, and you still work in your yard and—”
“And life goes on.” She nodded. “And it will for you, too.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“And in the meantime, your animals are perfectly welcome to stay with me as long as necessary”
“I’ll pay for their food,” I told her. “And if they need anything, anything at all, like to go to the vet, or if Rufus needs a bath, or whatever, I’ll take care of it. Just call me.” Then I wrote down my cell-phone number. “Please, call me about anything.”
She nodded. “Of course, dear.”
“And do you think it would be okay if I took Rufus for a walk sometime?”
“Certainly. I think that’s a wonderful idea, dear. And perhaps you’d come for another cup of tea, too.”
“And sympathy?”
She reached over and patted my hand. “Of course, dear, I have lots of that to offer.”
“It’s a deal,” I told her, thanking her again and again for everything.
“Keep your chin up,” she told me as I went back through the gate toward the house where I once lived.
I decided to go back inside for one last look. I’m not even sure why. Maybe I just wondered if there was anything I’d left behind, like my heart or maybe my mind. But after looking around, I realized that all I really wanted was to get away from this place. It no longer felt like my home. Instead it seemed as if it had been violated, perhaps the way you might feel if someone had broken in and stolen your valuables, or if you’d been invaded by aliens or perhaps just another woman. Whatever it was, it felt terrible and demoralizing.
I was just opening the front door when I heard his voice in the back of the house, calling my name. The sound was like someone dumping a bucket of ice water over my head, and I didn’t know whether to stay and face my foe or simply bolt out the door and never look back. Fight or flight, I seemed to remember from some psych class long ago in another life. I felt paralyzed.
“Glennis?” he called again, louder this time.
“Confront him,” I remembered Sherry telling me. And hadn’t that been my plan when I’d left the apartment?“I’m in here,” I answered, but my voice sounded strange. Kind of low and flat and detached from the fear knotting my throat.
“What are you doing here?” he asked when he finally emerged by way of the dining room.
Maybe it was the way he asked this question, but it sounded like a challenge to me. Like he was questioning my right to be in the house. And that made me angry Very angry “I used to live here,” I snapped. “Remember?”
He folded his arms across his chest and carefully eyed me. I could tell he was taking inventory, and I’m sure I wasn’t measuring up. When had I last measured up?“But you left,” he said in a tightly controlled voice, probably the same one he used in court when questioning the opposition. “Remember?”
I nodded. “That’s right. I did leave. And apparently I left just in time.”
His left brow lifted ever so slightly, a barely perceivable motion, at least to someone who didn’t know him that well. But I’d seen it a lot over the years. It was one of those little signs that he was seriously worried about something. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…I left just in time for you and Judith to come out into the open with your little affair—”
“We are not having an affair!”
But I could tell, even as he denied it, that they were. Oh, maybe they weren’t actually sleeping together yet, but they were definitely involved. “Don’t try to cover it up,” I said in what I hoped sounded like a bored voice, like I’d known about this for some time and wasn’t highly amused. “Everyone seems to know about it anyway.”
“What—who do you mean?” he sputtered. Something