The Doctor's Secret Bride(27)

“I’m just thanking her for bringing me to my senses about our little girl. You understand, right?” he said to the portrait.

He waited as if he expected a response. “I’m not breaking any rules,” he continued as the two-year-old conversation between his wife and his best friend surfaced in his mind, reluctantly pulling him back into his friend’s kitchen that awful night.

“You have to tell Erik, Cassie. Tonight. I can’t keep lying to him. He’s my best friend.”

“I can’t, Clay. It will kill him. I can’t hurt him like that. He loves me so much.”

“Yes, he does love you. And it will break his heart, but he’ll... he’ll heal. He’ll forgive you and move on. He’ll still have Precious and—”

Unable to take any more, Erik barged into the kitchen. “What the hell is going on here? Are you two having an affair?”

Both Cassie and Clayton jumped at the sound of his voice. Cassie, being Cassie, just stood there, looking all sweet and innocent, staring at him with her big brown eyes and ringing her hands while Clayton immediately confronted him.

“Damn it, Erik. What the hell kind of question is that?”

He collared his best friend. “I heard you tell her that she has to tell me. I knew there was something going on between the two of you. All the secret stares when you think I’m not watching, the secret meetings of late—”

“Stop it, Erik,” Cassie begged. “Just stop it, please.”

And true to her character, Cassie ran out into the night through the back door.

He’d found her standing beside their car, crying. It was the second time he’d seen his wife cry in all the years he’d known her. The first was when she’d held their newborn daughter in her arms for the first time.

After Cassie’s death, he’d asked Clayton about the conversation he’d overheard. His friend had just looked at him and said, “What does it matter now? Cassie is dead. Let it go, Erik.”

Then Clayton, whom he’d known since med school, pulled up his roots and left New Hampshire. Erik had no idea where he’d gone. It was just as well. He really didn’t want answers to the questions in his head. He’d taken Clayton’s advice and let it go, that is, until now. Could it be that he wanted the truth now that he’d met a woman to whom he was potently attracted? Was he looking for closure so he could move on?#p#分页标题#e#

Erik closed the door, shutting out the ghosts of his past. As he walked down the hall, he knew he would have to face them again. He wasn’t looking forward to it. Not in the least.





CHAPTER SIX



“Michelle, you know what?”

“What, Precious?” Michelle held her gaze in the dresser mirror as she brushed the little girl’s hair.

“I want you to live with us forever.”

“Forever is a long time, Precious, but I’ll be here for as long as you need me.” Five years to be exact. She put down the brush and led Precious to the pink canopy bed. She pulled back the ruffled comforter and helped her in.

The room was furnished with pink and white lacquered furniture and light pink wallpaper with an Arabian motif of princesses reclining on divans. Pictures of Precious and her parents were everywhere. They looked happy, Michelle thought, then wondered for the millionth time, what was it that Erik and his wife were arguing about the night she was killed.

Could it be that she was having an affair? Michelle found it hard to believe that a woman married to such a fine specimen of a man would cheat on him. He was everything a woman wanted in a husband. If she were married to him, she wouldn’t even notice other men existed.

But you aren’t married to him, a tiny voice whispered. You’re his daughter’s nanny, not a replacement for his wife. With that sober thought, she tucked Bradie under Precious’ arms and pulled the covers up around them. “Prayers,” she said, kneeling on the lambskin rug beside the bed.

Precious said her ‘God Blesses’ for all the people in her small world, then whispered something under her breath.

Michelle kissed each of her cheeks. “Your daddy will be in to read you a story.”

“I asked God to let you live with us forever.”

So that was the whispered request. Pain nipped Michelle’s heart as she left the room. She’d become very attached to the child in a very short time, and she would love nothing more than to live with her forever, but the sensible woman in her knew that was not possible. She was the nanny, hired to take care of Precious, not fill the role of her mommy. After five years, she would have to leave, whether she wanted to or not.