The Shadow Wife - Diane Chamberlain [134]
“You want to get your mitts on that baby again. What’s her name?”
“Shanti Joy.” Had she been that obvious? “Well, I really just want to say goodbye to Penny. But seeing the baby again would be a bonus.”
“Right.” Lisbeth smiled at her, and Carlynn knew she didn’t believe her. Her sister knew her too well.
“I have been having sort of a sick fantasy,” Carlynn said.
“What’s that?” The fog had suddenly thickened again, and Lisbeth’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel, her head pitched forward in an effort to see the road.
“My fantasy is…well, I’m appalled at myself for it. My fantasy is that her parents would die. Maybe not die. Maybe just be unable to take care of her for some reason and they’d give her to me.”
A small smile came to Lisbeth’s lips, but she didn’t take her eyes from the road. “You still long for a baby, don’t you?” she asked.
“I thought I was past it,” Carlynn said. “I love my work at the center. And I’m thirty-seven years old, for Pete’s sake. But that little life in my hands…” She shook her head with a smile. “She’s so beautiful. She has a ton of dark hair, and…”
Lisbeth suddenly stopped the car.
“What’s wrong?” Carlynn asked.
“I can’t do this, Carly,” Lisbeth said.
“Can’t do what?”
“Drive in this fog.” Lisbeth nodded toward the invisible road ahead of them. “I’m sorry. We have to go back. My legs are shaking.”
Carlynn turned in her seat to look behind them, but she could see nothing other than the fog. “We can’t turn around here, honey,” she said. “And we shouldn’t just stop like this. Another car could come up behind us and hit us.”
“Could you drive?” Lisbeth seemed frozen behind the wheel.
“Okay,” Carlynn said. “It was like this when I drove here from San Francisco, so I got pretty used to it.”
Quickly, the two of them got out of the car and exchanged places. Once Carlynn was in the driver’s seat, though, she understood why Lisbeth had panicked. The road was gone. Even the foliage along the side of the road was hidden.
“Yikes,” she said. “I see what you mean.” Putting the car in gear, she began inching it forward. The fog was far worse than it had been the day she’d driven to the commune, and if there had been a way to turn around on the narrow, winding road, she would have. But they were stuck now.
“So,” Lisbeth said, “were you tempted?”
“Tempted?”
“To sleep with someone at the commune?”
“Lisbeth! Are you crazy?” She stole a quick glance at her sister. “Of course not. Would you be?”
“No, but I was just wondering if, you know, the atmosphere would have gotten to you after a week. You said Penny was doing it with everyone.”
“But Penny’s always been that way. I hope she doesn’t get herself preg—”
“Carlynn!” Lisbeth shouted. “Watch out!”
The headlights of a car were directly in front of them, in their lane, and Carlynn had no choice but to quickly swerve to the left to avoid crashing head-on into the vehicle. The Volkswagen skidded on the wet pavement, sending them sliding across the road, and Carlynn knew the second the wheels left the pavement. Something crashed into the bottom of the car, which tipped precariously, teetering for a moment on the edge of an unseen precipice, and then they were falling.
Lisbeth tried to grab the wheel from her in a futile attempt to save them, but it was too late.
Carlynn caught her sister’s arm. “Oh my God, Lizzie!” she screamed. “I’m sorry. The road…”
She thought the car was falling sideways, although she couldn’t have said for certain, because every window offered only a view of fog. But she felt a jolt as they hit something, some outcropping from the cliff. She heard Lisbeth scream once more, and then, suddenly, the world was still and dark.
36
ONLY PAUL WAS SITTING AT THEIR USUAL LUNCH TABLE, EVEN though Joelle was late getting to the cafeteria. She carried her tray to the table, glancing over her shoulder to see if Liam might have been in the line behind her, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Paul stood up and pulled a chair out for her, and she laughed.
“I’m looking that pregnant, am I?” she asked.
“Just trying to be chivalrous,