Read Online Dead Even by Emma Brookes - Free Book Online Page A

can give her a rose, along with your mother, and we also need to plan an evening before long so Bess can meet your parents.”
    Gerald’s silence seemed to fill the room. At last he shook his head, wearily, taking hold of Audra’s hands as he spoke. “That isn’t a good idea, dear. Bess would feel out of place. I know she would. Can you imagine Bess in a long, formal evening dress? Can you really imagine her walking down the aisle in front of all those people?” Over my dead body, Gerald thought. My mother would have a stroke. “We’ll invite her to the wedding, certainly, but—”
    Audra cut him off, pulling her hands away from his. “Well, now that’s damn big of you, Gerald! But are you certain you want to even do that? I mean, she might embarrass you by using the wrong fork at dinner. How about if I just ask her to stay away?”
    Gerald threw up his arms in disgust. “You don’t need to get sarcastic. All I’m asking is that we talk about this. Is that too much to ask?”
    Audra stood and walked across the room before speaking. “Actually, there is nothing to talk about, Gerald. My own mother died when I was four years old. Bess is the only mother I have ever known. And if you’re too pig-headed to see what she means to me, and what a truly great person she is, then we can just call off this wedding!”
    â€œA great person? Damn it, Audra, Bess Truman is about one step up from a bag lady! That motel of hers is the laughing stock of the town, and she is a joke! You’re always bragging that she knows everyone in town—hell, yes, she does—and they all laugh at her! Can you imagine what people would think if you tried to palm her off as your mother at the wedding?”
    Audra’s face reddened with a new flush of anger. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone else thinks, Gerald! And anyway, you’re wrong! Mike Ramsey told me everyone admires Bess for the good she does. She is always helping someone and—”
    â€œRight,” Gerald interrupted sarcastically. “Is this the same Mike Ramsey who was suspended for drinking on the job? The same Mike Ramsey who the papers called ‘a disgrace to the uniform’? I might have known Bess would pick on someone like him for expert advice! ”
    Audra covered her ears with her hands, unable to cope with listening to him further. “Shut up, Gerald! Just shut the hell up and leave me alone!”
    He knelt beside her as tears streamed down her face, gently prying her hands away from her head. “Listen to yourself, Audra,” he said, his voice taking on a distinctively righteous tone. “We have been dating for almost two years, and I’ve never heard you raise your voice or say a swear word. In the last twenty-four hours, that’s all you’ve done. It isn’t like you. Hearing you scream like this only makes me more convinced we should never have started this whole business. What are you going to be like three days from now? A week?”
    Audra knew that at least part of what he was saying was true. She had even surprised herself with the anger that was building deep within her. Anger that she had long suppressed. Not just about the attack, but anger at Gerald, and the way he tried to control her. Anger at herself for letting him. Anger at who she had become these last ten years—a timid, frightened, introverted shell of a woman. That man had done more than rape and stab her. He had stolen her soul.
    Gerald looked at her, curious, as she dried her eyes and spoke in an even, controlled voice. “Do you know that when I was fifteen, I organized a sit-in at my high school to protest the firing of a teacher because he was gay?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAnd do you know that when I was sixteen, I took six friends to a farm that was being used as a puppy mill, and we rescued all of the dogs? My dad had to bail me out of jail