Part 218 (1/2)

HE DJDN'T ApoLoGizE this time. There was no need to. It took her ten

days in bed to recover, and all the while he told her she had brought it

on herself There was a part of her mind that knew he was wrong, knew he

was crazy. But he was persistent, and in an odd way loving, as he

explained, over and over, that he was only acting in her best interest.

She'd only been thinking of herself, hadn't she, when she'd spent all

those weeks preparing for her show? She'd sent her husband to bed

alone, night after night, then had flouted her marriage in public by

flirting with another man.

She'd pushed him to it. She'd deserved it. She'd brought it on herself

Though the phone rang constantly for several days following the showing,

she didn't answer any of her calls. At first her mouth was too swollen

and sore to allow her to speak. Drew brought her ice packs and fed her

soup. He gave her pills that took the edge off the worst of the pain

and helped her sleep through it.

Then he told her that people were only calling her to get to him. They

needed to be alone, to work out their marriage, to make a baby.

She wanted a family, didn't she? She wanted to be happy and be taken

care of ? If she hadn't put so much time and effort into her work, she

would be pregnant by now. Isn't that what she wanted?

And when he asked her, drilling her with the questions one after another

as she lay recovering, she agreed. But agreement was never enough.

She awoke alone to dark and music. A dream, she told herself, gripping

the sheets, fighting to wake. But even when her eyes were

open, she could hear it, those odd words sung by a man who was dead. Her

fingers shook as she groped for the switch on the lamp at the bedside.