Chapters (38)
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- epilogue
“And you were married before Victoria.”
I watched his face rearrange itself from outrage to shock.
“Oh my God. Did Vicky leave anything out?” He was yelling now, and I glanced involuntarily at my neighbor’s wall. Rick took a breath and continued quietly, “Look, I was going to tell you. That was so long ago. Becca and I screwed up. We were married for less than a year and a half, and we both knew it was wrong two months in.”
“And you left her for Victoria, didn’t you?”
“No, I left her because we couldn’t stand each other anymore. We argued about my patrol buddies, who she hated. Becca liked the idea of my uniform and service, but she hated having me on the road all the time. She worried constantly and spent hours on the phone with her mother, who helped her worry even more.” He shook his head, remembering. “We argued about her parents a lot, because they were right about everything. We argued about money, which she was fine with taking from them. We didn’t agree on anything except she belonged with her Mommy and Daddy, not me.” I glared at him. “Okay, yeah, I’d met Vicky. But I told you, my marriage was a mess and Becca didn’t care about me. That’s the truth. And I thought the sun rose and set on Vicky, I admit that.”
I let that thump around in my stomach for a minute, wondering how and when the sun stopped rising and setting on Vicky.
“Where is Becca now? Do you still hear from her?”
“Of course not. She moved to Atlanta with a new husband years ago,” he laughed softly, “and her parents, I swear to God. I never think of her, Ronni, maybe that’s why I didn’t bring it up.”
“You have to admit, Rick, it was a pretty important thing to ‘bring up’.”
“I’m sorry. I should have told you.” He held my eyes. “None of it compares to the way I feel about you, Ronni. That’s the past, and we should be talking about now.”
“There’s something else. Who is Carrie Douglas?”
Rick shook his head and was on his feet in a flash. “She mentioned Carrie to you? I don’t believe this. Damn Vicky, she’s gone way too far. I have to go. I’ll be back, but I have to leave for a while.”
“Just tell me who she is, Rick.”
He was almost at the door already. “She’s a girl I knew.” Rick read my face. “No, not like that. She’s an innocent girl who died, and Vicky isn’t going to use her this way. She’s not going to use me anymore, either, that’s for damn sure.”