Just Deserts - Brenda Jackson [13]
“We think it is, Danielle,” she heard Renée say. “We’re worried about you. We care.”
She couldn’t help but be touched. Over the past two months, they had endured a lot together, had felt the same pain, had been cut by the same deceit. Only difference from her was that they had moved on and had lives.
But she mustn’t allow herself to dwell on that right now. The most important issue, the most pressing issue was the fact that there was another person out there somewhere, another of Marc Foster’s victims. That was what she had to focus on.
“I’m fine, really. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m tough. I can hang. Tristan is a good friend. He’s always been there for me and I appreciate him.”
When neither women said anything, especially Alex, who was usually upbeat, Danielle got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. What were they trying to prepare her for? “You have found out something,” she said slowly, almost certain of it. “What is it?”
When neither said anything for a moment, her throat tightened, a sign of anxiety creeping in. “Hey, don’t hold back on me now.”
It was Renée who finally spoke. “We don’t want to ruin your vacation with Tristan.”
“You won’t. I feel relaxed.”
“What we’ll tell you won’t let you relax, Danielle. It’s going to make you mad. It made us mad.”
Her head began spinning, wondering what they knew. “Let me be the judge of that. I’m a big girl. Finding out that Marc was sterile came as a big blow. I’m thirty. Your biological clock hasn’t started ticking. Mine has. I hear it every day.”
“But you have Tristan,” Alex said.
Danielle felt her heart stir a little. Yes, she had Tristan, but not in the way they thought. And she knew it would be a waste of time trying to convince them of it yet again. She and Tristan were best friends, nothing more.
Still, she couldn’t help but think of a little girl with Tristan’s dimpled smile. She suddenly closed her eyes, as if to blink away the image, and felt annoyed with herself. How could she think such a thing? Then again, she knew Tristan was a giver. He would give her a baby if she asked him….
She felt the pulse beat erratically in her throat. No, she couldn’t do that. Tristan had given her too much of himself already. She couldn’t—she wouldn’t—ask him for more. It wouldn’t be fair.
“Yes, I have Tristan,” she said, although she knew their meaning of that was different from hers. “Now tell me what the two of you have found out.”
“You tell her, Renée,” Alex said.
“Okay, but Chris won’t like me telling you, although I think he’ll actually be relieved, since he wouldn’t know how to tell you himself. He had a hard time telling me, and I’m sure Hunter had a hard time telling Alex.”
Danielle felt like pulling her hair out. “Tell me what?”
“Just what Chris found at Marc’s apartment and why he thinks there’s another woman, a fourth woman.”
Danielle’s throat tightened again. “What did he find?”
Renée hesitated a moment before continuing. “The apartment was spacious and it had four bedrooms. A bedroom for each of us.”
Danielle felt her skin crawl and tried to subdue the feeling. “What do you mean?”
“What she means is this,” Alex said, taking up the story. “We each had our own room and they were furnished with each of us in mind. Decorated in our favorite colors and on the dressers were our favorite perfume, bath oil and even a listing of our favorite foods and hobbies. In the closets were items of our clothing he had obviously collected along the way. And in the bathroom were bathrobes with each of our names embroidered on them. Each room, according to what Chris told Hunter, was a shrine to each of us.”
Danielle didn’t say anything, mainly because she didn’t know what to say. To be quite honest, she doubted she could find her voice to speak, considering how taken aback she felt by what Alex and Renée had just shared. She couldn’t help but wonder how a man could marry three women, three different types of women, and then establish rooms under one roof for all of them. What kind of mentality would do such a thing?