Read Online New Leaf by Catherine Anderson - Free Book Online

blue depths. “Taffeta, I’m a county deputy. I can’t give you a blanket promise like that. What if you’ve done something illegal?”
    She rushed to assure him, “I haven’t! Not really, anyway. And I’m paying my debt to society.”
    His stomach lurched. “You’re
what
?”
    “I’m on probation,” she blurted. Then she stared at him, looking on the verge of tears, with her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Please don’t tell anyone, Barney. I’ve invested a lot of time and money to build a life for myself in Mystic Creek. I don’t want to start over again somewhere else.”
    “Did you say probation?” He could scarcely believe his ears. Taffeta didn’t strike him as the criminal type, and he prided himself on being an excellent judge of character. “What did you do wrong?”
    “Nothing!”
    He shook his head. “A person isn’t put on probation for doing nothing.”
    She inhaled a shaky breath and lifted her gaze to the ceiling. “I was wrongly convicted of child abuse. I didn’t do anything of the sort, I swear. My husband lied about me in court to discredit me so he could get a divorce without making his father mad.”
    As a lawman, Barney had heard way too many I-didn’t-do-it stories, and so far, hers wasn’t very convincing. “He accused you of child abuse in order to get a divorce? That doesn’t ring true, Taffeta. Why would a grown man go to such lengths, if he simply wasn’t happy and wanted out of the marriage?”
    She rested an elbow on the table and cupped a hand over her eyes. “Barney, I swear to you that it’s the truth.” Then she locked gazes with him before she continued speaking. “Phillip is an immature, selfish man who lives way beyond his means. He loves fancy clothes, racy new cars, and young women. Prior to our marriage, he wheedled money out of his wealthy parents to maintain his lifestyle. When he was almost thirty, his father finally got tired of it and gave him one year to grow up, get married, and act responsibly. Phillip decided to create the illusion of what his dad wanted to see, and he started hunting for a wife.”
    The waitress came to take their orders. Barney signaled that they weren’t ready with a slight shake of his head. When she walked away, he said to Taffeta, “And he found you?”
    “Yes,” she answered with a nod. “I worked in asports bar to put myself through college. I’d paid a pretty price for a fake ID and wasn’t yet twenty when we met. Phillip decided that I would be the perfect stage prop. His father is a high-end attorney at a fancy law firm. Phillip is, or was, a junior partner. I had just enough education not to be an embarrassment to him. I was young and easily impressed. Phillip charmed my socks off.” She gestured helplessly with her hands. “I thought he was wonderful.”
    “But he wasn’t,” Barney guessed.
    “No, definitely not. The ink was barely dry on our marriage license when he stopped bothering to be charming. He was far too immature and self-serving to have children. I would eventually have ended up leaving him, I’m sure, but I accidentally got pregnant. I was on the Pill, got a bad case of strep throat, and the antibiotics rendered the contraceptive ineffective.”
    Barney vaguely remembered reading somewhere that antibiotics had the potential to decrease the effectiveness of birth-control pills, so at least this part of her story rang true to him. He just wasn’t sure why she was telling him all this. He sensed that she wanted something from him, but he couldn’t imagine what.
    “Phillip was furious,” she said shakily. “He demanded that I get an abortion. I flatly refused, and our marriage, already on the rocks, completely fell apart. He stopped coming home except for when his parents came to visit. No matter what, he had to keep his dad convinced that he was a loving husbandand an eager father-to-be.” Her eyes swam with tears, and she avoided meeting Barney’s gaze. He got the impression