Read Online FAMILY FALLACIES (The Kate Huntington mystery series #3) by Kassandra Lamb - Free Book Online

into
having oral sex with him.
    “Yick!” Kate said out
loud, shuddering as she turned into the parking lot behind her office building.
It never ceased to amaze and disgust her how depraved some people could be.
    At eleven, Kate was
bracing herself before going out to the waiting area to usher Tammy into her
office. If she couldn’t get the woman stabilized, she was going to recommend an
in-patient treatment program.
    The client spent the
first fifteen minutes reporting in gory detail every fight she’d had with her
husband that week. Kate’s attempts to break into the flow had been
unsuccessful. Tammy just talked over her.
    When she finally wound
down, Kate said, “Quite frankly, I feel like we’re just going around in circles
here, Tammy. Actually a downward spiral would be a better way of putting it. As
long as you’re so angry, you and Mark are going to keep fighting. And as long
as your marriage is in turmoil, you aren’t in a good place to work on the abuse
that’s helping to fuel the anger.”
    Tammy launched into a
defense of her position that she had a right to be angry at her husband for
neglecting her.
    “I never said that he
isn’t neglecting you or that you don’t have a right to be angry with him. It’s
the intensity of the anger that’s the problem. Your reaction to Mark in the
here and now is intensified by all those unresolved feelings from the past. We
need to get those feelings resolved and then you’ll be able to deal with Mark
more rationally, and he’ll probably be more willing to listen to your
viewpoint.”
    Knowing it was likely
to cause her already intense day to get worse, Kate took the plunge and
suggested a thirty-day in-patient program for sexual abuse survivors, pointing
out that it would provide Tammy with a safe, calm environment in which to face
those old feelings and start to get them resolved.
    Kate got the reaction
she had anticipated. Tammy first accused her, repeatedly, of wanting to get rid
of her as a client. Kate repeatedly assured her that was not her reason for
making the suggestion.
    Then Tammy shifted
gears and said that she couldn’t possibly be away from Mark that long.
Belatedly she mentioned her son as well. Was there something like that, but it
would only be for a week? Kate pointed out that a week would just barely be
long enough to get in touch with the feelings. Then she would be coming home to
her neglectful husband, with those feelings totally raw. Not a good idea.
    Tammy finally agreed to
think about it, but she still did not look happy with Kate when she left.
    ~~~~~~~~
    T hat evening, Kate got
home just in time to put Edie to bed. Maria had given her a bath and put her in
her pajamas. Kate took the baby from the nanny and headed into the nursery to
enjoy her favorite part of motherhood, snuggling her sleepy child and breathing
in the scent of clean baby skin.
    Once the baby was
settled in her crib, Kate flopped down on the living room sofa. Kicking off her
shoes, she let out a sigh. Much as she liked her work, it still felt good when
the day was done, especially on Tuesdays.
    As she lounged on the
sofa, letting her mind become deliciously empty, her eye was caught by
something out of place in the baby’s portable playpen, tucked into a corner
across the room. Edie didn’t like being in it anymore, but Kate or Maria would
sometimes put her there temporarily when they needed to contain her while
answering the door or doing some other brief chore.
    Kate squinted, trying
to make out what the object was. Finally curiosity overcame inertia and she got
up to investigate. A piece of white paper, folded in half, lay in the bottom of
the playpen.
    How the hell did
that get in there? She leaned over and picked it up to unfold it.
    Kate jammed a fist into
her mouth to keep from screaming as the words on the paper registered. SEE HOW
EASY IT WOULD BE. YOU NEED TO LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE’S FAMILIES ALONE!
    She raced into the
kitchen where Maria was making herself a