Read Online Barbara's Plea by Stacy Eaton, Dominque Agnew - Free Book Online

you.”
    She patted my arm tenderly, “You’re welcome, Grey. Welcome home.”
----
    I found Gloria in the conservatory a few minutes before six. She was sitting at a desk I hadn’t noticed earlier, reading over some papers.
    “Evening, Gloria, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
    She peeled her glasses off her face and laid them down, “Not at all.” She stacked up the papers, “I’m ready for a break.”
    “Mr. Bloodstone,” Amelia’s voice had me turning toward the hallway, “would you care for a drink?”
    “I’ll take a beer if you have one,” I replied.
    “What kind? We have domestic or imported.”
    “Um, I’m not picky, whatever is handy.” She smiled and left the room. “Did you want something, Gloria? I can call Amelia back.”
    “No, I’ll have iced tea with dinner, maybe a glass of wine after.”
    I suddenly remembered that I had something I wanted to show her. “Here, I made a few sketches before I came over.” I handed her three sheets of paper with rough drafts. I bit my lower lip, wondering if she would like any of them or suddenly decide that she had made a grave mistake.
    She sat down at the end of one of the sofas and paged through the designs. I couldn’t tell by her expression what she was thinking, and my knees practically shook. I sat on the opposite sofa so I wouldn’t embarrass myself by falling over.
    She looked over the drawings for a full four minutes before she held one up. “This one.”
    “You like that one?”
    “Yes, I like this one, but I want to see if you can add words to that.”
    “Words, what words do you want added?” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees.
    “Words like, Hope, Faith, Believe, words that are strong. I could do that. I could scroll the words into the border of the design.” I paused, “You never said what this project is—why those words.”
    She set the papers on the table between us, “It’s for a new wing at the hospital, a wing for cancer patients.”
    I stared at the paper for a moment longer and then up at her. Maybe Walter really did bring us together.
    “Then those words are perfect,” I pronounced as Amelia handed me my beer bottle. I held it up to Gloria in a salute, “Here’s to our work.”

Chapter Eight
Barbara
    I didn’t get any sleep the night before and was up pacing the floor at five A.M.
    Today was the day.
    The other night, after I had woken up, beaten and bloody, I’d found that Todd had already packed for his trip and left. That was the best news I could have asked for. There had been no word from him since.
    If I had it my way, I would never hear a word from him ever again.
    At six, I took a shower and carefully applied makeup to hide the bruises along my neck and cheekbones the best that I could. It was hard, they were darker than any I had ever received before. I didn’t care about the bruises, they would fade, but I needed to be as invisible as possible, without marks for people to remember.
    Today, I had to slip into the shadows and disappear.
    At seven, I woke Allie and dressed her like I would any other day. By seven forty-five, she was fed and we were in the car to the baby sitter’s. Her diaper bag beside me held three days’ worth of clothing, a thousand dollars in cash, and a pre-paid cellphone.
    I had kept the money hidden under her crib mattress this last week. The one place I knew he would never look.
    I kissed Allie goodbye and gave Donna a pointed look before I left. No words needed to be spoken; she was in on the plan.
    As I drove back to my house, I ran the details of the plan through my mind over and over again. The first step was the transportation to the airport. My company had hired a car to pick me up and deliver me to the terminal. I glanced at my watch, in twenty minutes it would all begin.
    I pulled my car into the garage and looked around the inside. I felt there was something I was leaving behind that would be a clue, yet I found nothing. My car was