“Don’t you worry about him anymore, ma’am. There’s only so much that money can buy, especially once everything is out in the open.” Chief Edwards touched two fingers to the brim of his hat.
“Let me get my purse, and we’ll drive out to the hospital,” Annie said.
She turned to go back into the house, but Susan grabbed her hand.
“Annie.” She swallowed hard, and once again her eyes brimmed with tears. “Annie, I—”
“He’s going to be all right. The paramedics don’t think there’s any permanent damage.”
Susan shook her head. “I was so scared. It was as if twenty years hadn’t happened and I was still a scared little girl afraid to breathe if I thought it would make Archer mad.”
“But you didn’t let that stop you from doing what you had to do—not then and not now. I know you were scared.” Annie twisted her keys in her hand. “I was pretty terrified myself. But we didn’t let him bully us, did we?”
“No.” The realization brought a half smile to Susan’s lips. “No, we didn’t.”
“Now, come on. Your husband is going to be wondering where you are.”
18
“It was so easy.”
Susan stared straight ahead, watching the road vanish under them. Annie hadn’t wanted to trouble her with questions as they drove to the hospital, but Susan seemed relieved to finally be able to tell her everything.
“It was easy to fall into the trap. I had been in some shows, on and off Broadway, and I had decided I really didn’t want to continue. It’s a hard business, and if you want to stay in it for long, you have to make compromises, especially if you’re a young girl. I didn’t want to make those compromises, so I was thinking of giving it all up.”
“And then you met Archer Prescott.”
“Yeah.” Susan sighed. “At first he was unbelievably wonderful. He was funny and kind and generous—amazingly generous. All I had to do was admire something I saw in a store window, and he’d get it for me. He gave me clothes and jewelry, anything and everything. And he was so attentive. He would call me two or three times a day just to tell me he was crazy about me, or that he thought I was beautiful, or that we should get married. How could I help being flattered?”
“Who wouldn’t be?”
“But it was too much, and it was too soon. He wanted me to spend every minute with him. He’d get upset if I wanted to do something without him or just hang out with my friends. Aunt Kim said I didn’t seem happy anymore, and she was right. It was too stressful always going to some society function and worrying about looking just right. Sometimes I wanted to be able to go to the corner store just in jeans and a sweatshirt, or wear flats instead of spike heels, you know?”
“Archer didn’t like that?”
“No. I remember the first real fight we had. It was over my shoes. I’m surprised the people in the next apartment didn’t call the police on us the way he screamed and cursed and threw things at me. I stayed home and cried for two days after that, and planned to never see him again.”
“Obviously, you did though. Why?”
“He sent me flowers and left me messages and begged me to let him explain. I finally called him, and he cried on the phone. He told me he was so sorry. He said his father had always yelled at him when he was a little boy, and sometimes it was hard for him to not do the same thing when he was upset. And he told me about some things that had been going on at his company that he was worried about, things that he had taken out on me. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him, and I told him I’d see him again.”
Annie merely raised one eyebrow, and Susan ducked her head.
“I know. I know. I should have never let him treat me that way, not even once. But I wanted to be kind. I wanted to understand what he was going through and help him get past it. But when it happened again and again, I decided I had enough. When Aunt Kim died, I broke things off with him and came back home to Stony Point. He’d send me roses from time to time or leave messages on the answering machine, but I forced myself to ignore them. Then, right after my parents died, he called. He had sent flowers to the funeral and the sweetest card. I needed—” Susan’s voice broke. “I needed somebody. He told me again how sorry he was about the way things had ended between us. He said he knew we belonged together, and he promised to make me happy. I needed to be happy.”
“So you told him you’d marry him.”
“It was OK for a while. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want to make even the smallest decisions for myself. I guess I was deep in depression, I don’t know. He liked it that way, though. I just did what he wanted, and I did it all the time. But after a while, I started coming out of it. I started having my own opinions and my own plans. I tried to break it off with him. I even canceled the plans he had made for us to be married in Stony Point.”