Read Online Splintered by Kelly Miller - Free Book Online Page B

wee hours of the night. When the giggling got too loud, Emma’s dad would enforce a strict lights-out policy, but even in the dark, they’d stay up braiding each other’s hair.
    Lily also wanted to apologize to Emma about the angry words they’d exchanged the last time they spoke. She’d accused Emma of trying to sabotage her marriage, had said Emma was jealous because she couldn’t find a man of her own—at least not one who would stick around longer than a few months. Lily hadn’t actually meant those venomous words. She’d only been striking out, hoping to deflect some of her own pain.
    Before Lily could find the courage to verbalize her thoughts, though, Emma said, “I have somewhere to be right now, but tell Maddy I’ll call her tomorrow evening.”
    “Thanks—” Lily didn’t finish her sentence.
    There was no need. Emma had already hung up.

(13)
EMMA PARKER
    Emma Parker stared at her cell phone, trying to make sense of the conversation she’d just had. More than four years had passed since she’d spoken to Lily Eastin or, rather, shouted at her. The heated words, the wounded pride—neither would budge when it came to backing down. The silence between them had stretched on for so long that it was easier for Emma to continue the course rather than to attempt to bridge the distance.
    She’d enjoyed keeping in contact with her goddaughter, though, by talking on the phone and occasionally meeting for lunch. They always met on neutral ground, and it was understood the sensitive subject of Lily would only be broached by Maddy. The girl vented about her mother, and Emma listened but never asked how her old friend was doing. She didn’t want Maddy to feel stuck in the middle.
    Emma wondered what it would take to bury all of those hurt feelings, to suck up her pride, and to go over to Lily’s house. It sounded like her goddaughter could use a shoulder. It sounded like they both could.
    No. Stop thinking like that. I can’t let myself be pulled into Lily’s drama. Not again.
    Emma had begged Lily not to marry Tom. She’d told her it would end badly. Individually, Lily and Tom were complete messes. Their relationship was like a volcano always on the brink of a big eruption.
    Emma remembered the first time Lily introduced her to Tom, during their last semester in college at the University of South Florida. He was all smiles, with a salesman’s charm that would serve him well in his later profession. But Emma had a knack for reading people—hearing their unspoken words rather than the ones actually said. Tom’s smile never extended to his eyes. They were cold, and gave away more than he realized. Emma knew the face he showed the world didn’t reflect his true self.
    Within a month, Lily had moved in with Tom. That’s when his mask started to slide. An anger simmered just underneath his surface, like steam rising from the skin on a cold January day. Once, when Emma was visiting, she walked in on them fighting in the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the stinging words Tom hurled at Lily over the simple mistake of buying the wrong toothpaste. He didn’t yell. Instead, he got in her face, standing nose-to-nose with her. With a clenched jaw and as much venom as he could muster, he said, “It must suck to be you. It must suck to wake up in the morning, to look in the mirror, and know that you’re you.”
    Those kinds of insults were launched at Lily for the tiniest of infractions—lighting the wrong scented candle in a room, adding onions to a dinner casserole, not having extra batteries when they ran out. The constant criticism got so bad Lily tried to morph into some kind of Superwoman. It seemed like she thought if she could only look pretty enough, act smarter, dress better, then she might avoid the verbal attacks.
    Emma could tell the anger Tom displayed was a front for self-loathing. The hate he felt must have been immense for him to want to constantly strike out at the one