Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [90]
“Don’t I always?” Kristen said, offended.
Sophie grinned. “I’ll see you back at your house. No one will ever know we separated. Just tell them I’m in the bathroom if they ask.”
“Are you sure you should be doing this?”
But Sophie was already gone.
18
When Rachel woke up the house was dark, like a suffocating tomb. She rolled over in the big bed, restless, achy, and pulled the pillow over her head, then pushed it away. There was no light in the house, no noise. She didn’t have to bury her head.
She reached over and turned on the lamp. It made a meager blue pool of light by the side of the bed, and she squinted at the tiny numbers on the clock. It was only a little bit past noon on another miserable day and yet it felt as if she had slept for twenty-four hours.
The rain had returned with a vengeance, and she allowed herself the luxury of a muffled curse. She dragged herself out of bed, shoving her hair away from her face. David was always after her to get it cut, get it straightened, get it dyed a more subdued color. He had no idea that she surreptitiously had the red brightened from the naturally sedate auburn—he would have been horrified. But she’d changed enough for him and her new life. New clothes, new shoes, new attitude, even if the old one kept popping up every now and then. And she had even more reason to be grateful. She’d betrayed him, distrusted him, broken their marriage vows and he’d forgiven her.
She went into her bathroom and splashed her face with cold water, then looked up at her reflection. She had that haunted look in her eyes, the one that had been there when they’d first found Tessa. Right now she didn’t think it would ever go away.
She needed Sophie. To hell with David’s wise advice. If the killer was caught…Why was she still thinking in terms of if?
Because it didn’t feel right.
She opened her closet, looking at the rows of gray and beige clothing. Classics, David had told her when he took her shopping. They made her look younger, slimmer, prettier. And how could she argue with that?
She shoved them aside, grabbing her old jeans and tie-dyed T-shirt. Her raggedy, hand-painted sneakers were still there as well. Her oldest, most comfortable clothes had started disappearing a month after they’d arrived in Silver Falls, and she’d actually been fool enough to hide these to keep them away from him.
Why hadn’t she realized how slowly, insidiously he was controlling her? This whole life had been so foreign to her that she’d taken her cues from him. And she’d been an idiot.
Now that the danger was over she was going to do the thing she should have done in the first place. She was going to take Sophie and get the hell out of this town, find a place with no memories. Maybe she’d call David when she got someplace where she felt safe, maybe not. She didn’t want to be around for Caleb’s trial, she didn’t want to hear the gossip. Didn’t want the horrific details. She’d avoided the newspapers for good reason when Tessa died—she didn’t want to read them now.
The only way she could miss all of it was to take Sophie overseas. It would be spring in New Zealand this time of year. The sun would shine, and it would be exquisitely beautiful, and she could finally get her head clear, without David’s disapproving influence, without the constant rain rotting her brain and growing mold on her soul. And for the first time in the last twenty-four hours her heart lifted.
Finding suitcases was her first task, and she finally discovered them in the back of the garage, in the neat shed where David kept the few tools he used. She could still smell the dead-animal scent back there, and she pried open the window, letting in the damp air and probably more rain. He’d have a fit if his tools were damaged.
So what. There were two huge suitcases underneath the smaller ones, and she dragged them through the house, closing the noxious odor away from her. In the end she hadn’t needed that big a suitcase. She wasn’t going to take any of