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
He was true to his word for months, until she forced herself to believe his apology and promises the morning after he’d had too much to drink at a hospital Christmas party. He lost his temper on the drive home because she screamed when he hit a stray dog crossing the road. The same Tolly who’d just viciously slapped her face stopped the car and gently picked up the dog, clearly less than a year old. He treated the puppy with heartbreaking care and tenderness, keeping it alive until the veterinarian’s office opened the next day. He called as soon as he learned the puppy would recover, offering to bring it home to be Violet’s pet.
Violet said no.
She shook off the memory and walked to the library, drawing a line with her finger down a row of Tolly’s classics collection. Violet unlocked a hidden drawer in her writing desk and removed two black leather journals. One was her diary, the other a novel she was writing about a foundling. Angelica was a tiny baby girl in a red boat washed onto a Florida beach. She’d been discovered by an elderly couple as she waved her dimpled arms toward the sun. At this point in the book Anjelica was five years old; Violet hadn’t been able to imagine beyond that chapter.
Violet took the journals to her room and collapsed on the bed. She was surrounded by gold silk moiré wallpaper, plush ivory satin-covered furniture, paintings from Birmingham’s finest galleries, and exquisite antiques from Atlanta. Tolly would walk into the house in a few hours and kiss her cheek as though nothing had happened at all. In a few nights they’d have dinner at the club, sure to parade Violet from table to table so their friends and associates could see she looked well and beautiful as ever. Her husband’s fingers would dig into her arm if she betrayed the slightest hint of anything other than adoration for him.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember one true thing in her life.
nineteen
RONNI
Kait hugged me for the longest time. “Do not ever, ever again leave me here to deal with the madness alone for two weeks. I will hunt you down and deposit Audrey Marie Haynes Ledbetter in your bed. Much more effective than a horse head.”
I looked toward Audrey’s room. “Why isn’t she rolling the halls?”
“Says her arthritis is bothering her. Hasn’t been harassing anyone for three days. I’m sure she’ll summon the strength to emerge for an afternoon reign of terror, though. She’s missed you.”