Read Online Cult by Warren Adler - Free Book Online Page B

irrational and inhibiting emotion.
    But why not another child, or more? For true companionship, she speculated, siblings needed to be spaced closer, perhaps two years apart at most. Had she refused to propagate further?
    â€œHow come you didn’t have another child?” She had deliberately hit him obliquely with that.
    â€œWe were planning another, but not just yet. We wanted to stay in the city. We had a co-op on 76th and Broadway,” he said. “It’s okay for one child, but for more… you have to think suburbs. We both loved Manhattan.”
    The explanation spun forward, throwing doubts onto her mind’s eye: was Charlotte uneasy, unfulfilled, beginning to wonder if this was all there was? Perhaps that first flush of blind love had receded. She felt cheated. She needed and wanted more of life’s experiences under her belt.
    She tried to put herself in Charlotte’s place. There just was no other way to judge these circumstances. Their marriage was becoming intolerable. The purpose of visiting her sister was certainly for a chance of reconciliation, but Charlotte had to talk to someone.
What better confidante than a sister?
She went alone, leaving her family, maybe for the first time since her marriage. Perhaps it opened doors, showed her a way to escape, made Charlotte ponder and take action. Could the cult have just been the path of least resistance? They opened their arms and she walked right in.
    Through her sister and the Glories, she had found the exit she craved for from her present life. From Barney. From Kevin. From the old, narrow, stultifying, crippling, pre-programmed life. Was all of this wishful thinking on Naomi’s part?
Which situation was worse for Charlotte?
Naomi wondered, admonishing herself for the thought.
    â€œNothing will convince me that she wanted this to happen. She was a victim,” Barney said as if he had read her mind.
    â€œYou don’t think she was vulnerable?” Naomi pressed.
    â€œVulnerable?” he mused. “No more than anyone else. We were, by any measure, a happy family,” he sighed.
    It was, she decided, the wrong tack. He must have sailed those choppy waters over the past sleepless nights.
    â€œIt can happen to any one of us,” Mrs. Prococino had said. “It can happen to you, lady.”
    No, it can’t
, Naomi protested.
Not if you didn’t want it to happen, not if you’re not vulnerable.
She was not rejecting Barney’s and Mrs. Prococino’s pain. That was quite real. It was their one-sided rationalization that troubled her. What if there were personal troubles in Franco’s life, just like Charlotte’s? Naomi couldn’t help but think that that could have been a factor.
    â€œThe worst part of all this, Nay,” he said finally. “Like Mrs. Prococino said, you blame yourself.” He retreated for a long moment. “When she hugged me back there, she said it again. ‘It’s not your fault. It’s them.’ She said no one would understand that unless it happened to them.”
    â€œAnd you believe that?”
    â€œI want to. If I thought it was my fault….” He let the idea drift away.
    Now it was her turn to remain silent. Naomi wondered if she was reaching at last into the heart of the matter.
    The car crawled through the rush-hour traffic.
    Without Naomi’s assault of questions to distract him, Barney descended into his own brooding reflection. “A black Irish funk,” he had once called that mood. Watching the outline of his face, she saw the silhouette of the only man who had ever moved her, the one she had thrown away. What else could she have done?
    As she pulled up in front of the Marriott, she braced for the goodbyes. Not once had he referred to their past together as if it had happened to other people. He probably didn’t even think about it much anymore. She suddenly smiled, remembering the display of his denuded organ, that