Silent Run - Barbara Freethy [50]
“Sarah?”
Jake’s questioning voice brought her back to the present.
“I saw houses,” she said. “At dinnertime. I don’t know who the people were.”
“No, you don’t,” Jake said, surprising her with the response.
“What do you mean?”
“We used to take walks at night when I got home from work. You loved looking in the windows. I teased you about it. You said it was a habit from childhood. You liked to see the way other people lived.”
She thought about his words, wondering why they sounded right and yet a little wrong, too. She gazed back at the house he’d designed. “This is beautiful.”
“You captured it well. You were a good photographer, Sarah. You loved to pick out the one detail that made the landscape different, like the empty beer can in this shot.” He pointed to another picture on the wall—a bird nibbling at a fast-food wrapper. “You liked the contrast of nature with civilization. You would get into crazy positions just to catch the right angle, the perfect beam of light. You were passionate about it. Like Amanda, I suggested a couple of times that you turn it into a business, but you always blew me off, saying it was the digital age of camera phones, and everyone was a photographer.”
“That is true, isn’t it?”
“I think you had another reason. You didn’t want to draw attention to yourself. You didn’t want photos with your name attached. That would have been too public for someone intent on staying out of the light.”
She looked into his face and asked the question she needed to ask. “Do you think I used you to hide?”
A pulse throbbed in his throat. “I think you used me, but I don’t know why.”
“How did I get pregnant? Did we plan it? Was it an accident?”
“An accident. The condom broke.” His gaze darkened. “When you got pregnant you were shocked, agitated. I thought for a while you’d run out and get an abortion. You kept saying you couldn’t have a baby. I tried to calm you down. It wasn’t in my plan either, but it had happened, and we had to deal with it. And the last thing I wanted you to do was get rid
of our child.”
“You offered to marry me, didn’t you?”
“Many times. You kept putting me off, telling me you wanted to wait until after Caitlyn was born. I figured eventually we’d get to it.”
An image of a white gown flashed through her brain.
She was standing in front of a mirror wearing an off-the-shoulder wedding dress. A woman was taking measurements. Two glasses of champagne sat on the table. She could hear a man’s voice in the background. He always knew exactly what he wanted for her, and today was no different. She glanced down at the diamond ring on her finger. It was three carats, huge. It felt heavy on her hand. Her pulse began to race. Sweat broke out along her forehead. Was she making a terrible mistake? She loved him. He loved her. Didn’t he?
Sarah’s breath was still coming hard and fast when she looked at Jake. “I just saw myself wearing a dress. You were there at the bridal salon. We were drinking champagne. You lied to me. We got married, didn’t we?”
Chapter Eleven
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jake couldn’t
believe she was accusing him of lying.
“I saw us.”
“You didn’t see me.” Jake’s stomach began to churn.
“I heard a man’s voice,” she said. “Maybe it wasn’t yours.”
“I know it wasn’t. If you married someone, it wasn’t me. In fact, you told me you’d never been married, never even come close. Was that another lie, Sarah, another secret? Was it?” He jammed his hands into his pockets. “God! When is it going to end? When are we going to hit rock bottom with the truth?”
She stared at him with big, wide, confused blue eyes. He’d once thought she’d had the eyes of an angel. Even now he could see a shimmer of tears. Was her pained innocence an act? He’d been a fool
before. He couldn’t be a fool again. He couldn’t let her get to him. He couldn’t believe in her.
“Maybe I didn’t go through with it. Maybe I ran away.”
“You probably did run. That’s what you do. I wonder how many other men you’ve left in your wake.