Part 25 (2/2)
Maybe if Delia had left it there to control me, I could use it to control her.
THE END.
NOTE FROM TEYLA BRANTON: Thank you for downloading my book and for spending time in my world! I hope you enjoyed The Escape. If you did, will you please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads? The more positive reviews I receive, the less time I'll have to spend trying to sell random people my book and the more time I can spend writing sequels. Yes, I have multiple sequels in store, so thank you for any help you can give me in spreading the word. I promise I'll make it up to you! If all goes well, book four should be released sometime in 2014. I will put more info on my website when I have a better idea as to when.
However, that's not all I have written. On the next page you will find the first chapter of Tell Me No Lies, a contemporary romantic suspense (not paranormal or urban fantasy) under my pen name Rachel Branton. Also, you can learn more about me and my books in the About the Author section following the sample chapter. Be sure to sign up for new release notices and ebook updates at TeylaBranton.com.
TELL ME NO LIES.
by Rachel Branton
CHAPTER ONE.
I blinked to hold back the tears, stunned by what I was hearing. No! I don't believe it. But I did.
Hurt followed the disbelief, growing to an agony that urged me to physically lash out at Sadie, my best friend and bearer of the terrible news, but I was frozen in place, as though my heart had stopped pumping blood to my suddenly useless limbs.
Besides, it wasn't Sadie's fault.
Oh, Julian. How could you?
Sadie put a hand on my shoulder, but the sympathy in her eyes did little to comfort me. ”I'm sorry, Tessa. I really am. I didn't want to tell you, but . . .” She sighed and continued in a whisper, ”I would want to know if it were me.”
Her words released me from my mute state. ”I need to be alone.”
”Of course. I understand. Call me if you need me.” Sadie stepped close and hugged me while I stood without moving. I barely noticed her departure.
My eyes wandered the room of my childhood, only recently familiar again since I'd come home to Flagstaff to prepare for the wedding. Mother had insisted on dinners and celebrations, and because Julian and I planned to live in Flagstaff, where he would work in his family business, it only made sense for me to leave the job at my father's factory in Phoenix several weeks early. I missed the job and my friends the minute I'd left, but Julian and I were ready to take the plunge into matrimony-or so I'd thought.
The door to my walk-in closet was open, and I could see the wedding dress I was to have worn in just over forty-eight hours. Bile rose in my throat, and a tear skidded down my cheek. I brushed it impatiently away. I wouldn't cry for a man who had betrayed me.
Since tonight we were having the rehearsal dinner, last night had been Julian's bachelor party. Sadie's brother had been at the party and had told her all about Julian disappearing early with a woman whose hands had been altogether too familiar with a man who was about to be married.
I slumped on my bed, covered with the homemade quilt my grandmother had made, my eyes still locked on the white satin dress. Drenched in lace and small pearls, it had a sweetheart neckline and a gorgeous chapel train. The dress cost seventeen hundred dollars and had taken three weeks of daily shopping to find. My mother had been with me every one of those days, which had been a torture in itself.
I bit my lip until I tasted blood.
I'd met Julian Willis when I'd come home to visit for the Christmas holiday, though if the truth be told, my visit had more to do with my horse, Serenity, than seeing my parents. At my mother's insistence, I'd tagged along on their invitation to attend a party thrown by the Willises. I hadn't minded going, once I met Julian. If his blond good looks and toned physique hadn't won me over, his attentiveness and charm would have. After countless trips to Phoenix on his part and numerous weekends home on mine, the inevitable had happened: we'd fallen in love. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes.
Two weeks later, my father and Julian's had negotiated a business arrangement to take effect after the wedding. The Willis family owned a huge frozen food conglomerate, and my father produced a line of breakfast cereals, where I managed the swing s.h.i.+ft. With the help of the Willises, our business would expand to new markets my father had never before reached. I wasn't sure what the Willises were getting out of the deal since our business was stable but not growing. Maybe they would simply have in-laws who were up to their standard of living.
Not that we'd ever been poor in my lifetime-thanks to my grandpa who'd worked himself into an early grave to create that first bowl of sugar-coated cereal. I still missed him terribly.
What am I going to do?
The awful thing was that a part of me wasn't all that surprised. Julian was attractive, thoughtful, and a big flirt-a hit with ladies of every age. Half of the marriageable women in Flagstaff had chased him at one time or another, and before we'd met he'd had a bit of a reputation-one he'd a.s.sured me was complete fabrication.
I won't marry a liar and a cheat. Every woman deserved better than that. I wondered if I'd purposely been blind or if he'd been good at hiding things. Perhaps his betrayal had been a momentary lapse, but if so, what did that say about our future? If I couldn't trust him now, how could I trust him for the next sixty or more years?
Maybe it's all a mistake. I latched onto the idea. Yet in the next minute I had to discard it. Sadie had been my best friend since kindergarten, and I'd trust her with my life. There was no way she would have spoken unless she was certain it was true. More likely she hadn't told me everything she knew, not wanting to hurt me further.
A knock on the door startled me from my thoughts. ”Who is it?”
”Your mother.”
”Come in.”
Elaine Crawford didn't so much as enter a room as sweep into it. She was the epitome of grace and elegance. Even at eight o'clock on a Thursday morning, her hair was styled in an elaborate twist that was both attractive and left her beautiful neck bare.
”My, Sadie was in such a hurry this morning. I've never seen her run off so quickly. Did you two have a disagreement?”
I shook my head, unwilling to trust my voice.
My mother's eyes didn't leave my face. ”What happened? We can't be losing your maid of honor at this late date.” She smiled to show she was teasing, but there was a warning under the words.
”Sadie and I are fine.”
”Wonderful.” She walked to the closet and peered inside. ”You're going to look like a princess in this dress. Even without you in it, I could stare at it all day. Julian won't be able to take his eyes off you.”
I gave her a weak smile. I did love the dress-a good thing, since it had taken so much time to find one we both agreed on. My mother wasn't a woman to give up on any goal, and her goal had been to find a dress that not only would I agree to wear but that would make people sigh with admiration for years to come.
She rambled on, going over a last-minute menu change and reminding me we needed to pick up my father's tuxedo. ”I hope Lily's man comes dressed appropriately,” she said, almost as an afterthought.
”Mario's wearing a suit. Lily said he looks great.”
”I wish you hadn't insisted on their coming.”
”Lily's my sister. Of course she'll be at my wedding.”
”You weren't at hers.”
I didn't say anything. Lily had done what she felt she had to, and I'd been happy for her.
”He will never amount to anything,” my mother added.
”And you think Julian will?” I couldn't hold it back any longer, though I knew my mother was the worst person to confide in. She'd never been the kind of mother to bake cookies, to take her kids to the park, or sit and discuss school and boyfriends. As teenagers, Lily and I had agreed that she was like Mary Lennox's mother in the Secret Garden-too occupied with her own life and goals to really care about her daughters. ”Well, you're wrong. I just found out he cheated on me. Maybe more than once.”
My mother didn't gasp. She didn't hug me and ask me how I knew. She showed no sympathy for me or anger toward my fiance. She simply stared.
”I can't marry him,” I said.
That brought her to life. ”Of course you'll marry him. It's you he loves, no matter what you've heard.”
Something in her demeanor tipped me off. ”Wait. What do you know about this?”
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