Read Online The Opposite of Dark by Debra Purdy Kong - Free Book Online Page B

times to apologize for ruining my marriage. Claimed she wanted to be friends again, and to see you again. She still asks about you.”
    Casey couldn’t believe it. “What do you tell her?”
    â€œJust the basics,” Rhonda’s teaspoon clanged against the mug. “She said she was so sorry for hurting you and me. She said, ‘I swear I’ll never hurt you again, Rhonda; just tell me how I can make it up to you, Rhonda; we know each other too well to stay apart.’” Rhonda dropped the teaspoon in the sink. “As if she could scam me. The second I told her that Marcus and I were engaged, I knew she hadn’t changed.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œShe said, ‘He’ll never need you as much as I do. He’ll never understand you as well as I do, Rhonda.’ Every time she called she went on about how he and I were wrong for each other.” Rhonda removed a green bucket, brush, and Pine Sol from the cupboard below the sink. “I would bet Lillian said the same thing to Marcus. She hinted that they’d stayed in touch. When you said her name was in his address book I wasn’t surprised.”
    â€œWhy would Dad have done that?”
    â€œNo clue.” Rhonda filled the bucket with water. “Lillian kept calling me after Marcus’s funeral, supposedly to see how I was doing. I wonder if she knew he was alive.”
    â€œIf you didn’t want Mother’s friendship, why say anything at all? Why not just hang up on her?”
    â€œYou won’t believe this, but I felt sorry for Lillian.” Rhonda picked up her scrub brush and rubber gloves. “She was so desperate for news about you. I’m a mom, Casey. I can’t imagine being estranged from my daughter, not watching her grow up.”
    â€œDid you and Dad ever discuss Mother?”
    â€œI told Marcus about the calls, but he wouldn’t talk about it. Thought he was still bitter. Now, I’m not so sure.” Rhonda lifted the bucket out of the sink. “Somehow, I don’t think Lillian’s finished with us.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    She plunked the sudsy bucket onto the floor. “Sooner or later, she might appear on our doorstep to try and make peace with you.”
    â€œAfter all of these years?”
    â€œI think she hates that you and I are close.” Rhonda put the gloves on. “She wants to be part of your life again, probably to try and come between us.”
    An unsettling thought. Was that why Mother wanted her to phone?
    Rhonda began scrubbing the floor. Rhonda always cleaned floors when she was under stress, which was why Casey was glad she hadn’t mentioned the phone message. Her friend had to be far more stressed than she was letting on. Why else would she abandon partially eaten toast and a fresh mug of coffee to wash a floor she’d just washed yesterday?

Eight

    SIMONE ARCHAMBAULT LIVED on a muddy lane bordered by sulphuric-smelling ditches and prickly weeds. Her cottage was a gray, clapboard shack about as appealing as a war bunker. The venetian blinds covering both windows were closed.
    Casey walked along two planks laid across the marshy front lawn until she reached the door. She’d barely started knocking when the ominous barks of a large dog started inside. Simone poked out from behind the curtain. Casey heard, “Stop it, Georgie!”
    The door opened and Casey found herself looking at a tiny woman with hunched shoulders and deep lines across her forehead and around her mouth.
    â€œI’m Casey Holland.”
    Simone studied her through bifocals. “Yes, you are.” She looked so malnourished that Casey was caught off guard when Simone grabbed her wrist and hauled her inside. “Not followed, were you?”
    â€œNo.” She’d been diligent about checking her surroundings. “Why do you ask?”
    â€œI want privacy.”
    The Doberman pinscher growled.
    â€œIt’s okay,