Read Online Emily's Affair by Elijana Kindel - Free Book Online Page B

to do? The answer popped into her head in an instant. Marilyn would say, "No pain, no gain." But Marilyn wasn't apprised of the details regarding Emily's past. Marilyn knew the details of Lee's past, but not Emily. Lee was the person she wanted the world to know. Not Emily.
     
    "It's not what you think," Lee muttered.
     
    Jake kept rearranging boxes and organizing. "I can imagine some pretty bad things, sweetheart."
     
    "I left of my own free will."
     
    "Left what?" He stacked the soda syrup boxes.
     
    "Home."
     
    "Why?" He kept his back to her, but stopped arranging.
     
    "Because…," she trailed off and stared at his back. Her reasons for leaving home might sound juvenile to some, but they weren't juvenile. Not to her.
     
    Emily hadn't run away—well, she had. She'd snuck out of the house in the middle of the night, but it had been for a good reason. She'd been trying to save her life. Or rather, she'd been trying to live it.
     
    At least, that's what she'd told herself at the time.
     
    "Why, Emily?" His question was soft and barely audible above the groan of music in the bar and the drone of the air conditioner.
     
    Emily blinked and focused on Jake who had turned around and was watching her with concern. She hugged herself tighter and tried, without success, to relax the stiffening of her shoulders.
     
    "Because I couldn't handle the way things were. And I sure as hell didn't want to stick around when the papers got wind of my mother's latest stunt."
     
    "So you just ran away?"
     
    The chip on her shoulder spoke for her. "No. I shimmied down the fire escape, then skipped merrily away."
     
    "How old were you?"
     
    Emily sent him a bitter smile. "One day away from the ripe old age of seventeen."
     
    "And you lived on the streets," he stated more than asked.
     
    The chip on her shoulder disintegrated. "There were a couple of half way houses, but not every town has a half way house. So, yes, I did sleep on a couple of street benches."
     
    Jake cursed under his breath. "What about your parents?"
     
    "What about them?" Emily pushed off angrily from the wall and paced. "My father died when I was two. My mother wasn't the greatest in the world. She had a little problem. No, I take that back. She had a big problem. And it had everything to do with a little white substance which could be inhaled for a quick buzz."
     
    Jake's eyes narrowed and she couldn't bear the pity in his expression. She didn't want to be pitied. "Cocaine," he said.
     
    "It's not like it's a huge secret. Every newspaper and magazine carried the story of my mother's little addiction and her attempted suicide. Oh, maybe I should mention just who my mother is. It's not like I'd expect you to recognize her name. I mean, it's not like you keep up with the names of every has-been fashion model."
     
    "Your mother was a model?"
     
    Emily nodded. "Her real name is Amelia Stafford. But she always went by Amé."
     
    "Your mother is…?"
     
    "Amé." Emily cursed the tears pooling in her eyes. It never failed that when she thought of the past that her emotions got the best of her. That's why she didn't like to talk about it.
     
    Emily despised thinking about how her mother reacted when she was in need of a hit of something, a dose of anything which would make her forget about everything. Forget Nature taking its toll on her body. Forget the wrinkles showing up around her eyes. Forget eating. Forget… the days and the nights.
     
    Forget everything.
     
    Including her daughter.
     
    Emily pivoted on her heel and stalked back in the other direction. "Take a guess how many times she almost missed a shoot because she was stoned out of her mind? Or how about how many times I had to pick her up off the bathroom floor and tuck her into bed? Or yell at her to eat something? How many times I had to hold her head over the toilet so she wouldn't—"
     
    "Stop." Jake grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to turn and face him.
     
    "Why should I? This