For the Rest of My Life by Harry Kraus

Author:Harry Kraus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Zondervan

Lena Chisholm took the small leatherbound Bible from Claire’s hand. “I appreciate all you’ve done, but . . .” She looked away. “I know what you want.”

Claire didn’t understand. “I—”

“But I can’t keep this baby.”

“This isn’t about the baby, Lena. Your child is important to me, but so are you. I just wanted to make sure you had a Bible. We left in such a hurry, I thought that, well, you might need it.” Inside, Claire cringed. She wanted to be able to reach out to her patients in a natural way, sharing her hope in God’s grace as a solution, but she felt like an unstable toddler.

Lena looked away and placed the book at her side. “Okay.”

Claire shifted in her seat, wanting to say something encouraging, but not sure how to penetrate Lena’s shell. “It’s helped me.”

Lena looked up.

“The Bible, I mean. Things haven’t always been a breeze in my life, Lena. I couldn’t make it without my faith.”

Lena nodded quietly.

They sat together for an awkward moment as Claire pondered what to say, and wondered how to bring up her suspicions about Brittany’s rape. “Lena,” she began slowly. “Once when I asked you about fighting back, you told me about Billy Ray forcing you to . . .” She paused. “. . . have sex with him. Did he, well . . . do anything, well, you know, use a disguise or anything?”

Lena turned around and blushed. “You’re not married, are you?”

Claire shook her head.

“You want to know what it’s like, is that it?” Lena couldn’t suppress an immature giggle. “I’ve read a lot of novels that tell about love. Billy Ray was never into romance. I don’t think you should ask me for advice.” Her eyes met Claire’s. “John is your boyfriend, huh? He’s hot. I’ll bet he’s romantic.”

This wasn’t going where Claire intended. She shrugged. “I guess.”

Suddenly Lena looked away. “There was one time . . .” She trailed off.

“What?”

“Billy Ray wore a mask once. The time he almost killed me.”

“A mask? What kind of mask?”

“You know, a mask like a doctor wears.” She lifted her hands up over her mouth to illustrate. “Billy Ray said he always wanted to be a doctor.

He joked with me about wanting to ‘play doctor.’ I think the mask was just his way of pretending to be something he wasn’t. He was drunk. It was a game.”

The information hit Claire in the gut. Billy Ray had used a surgical mask just like Brittany’s attacker. Her mind began to race. Billy Ray had become increasingly violent. Now, since his wife was gone, was he looking for other targets?

Claire tried to focus. How much could she reveal and not be betraying a patient confidence? She couldn’t share the details of Brittany’s assault. But I’d better tell the police about my thoughts about Billy Ray.

“Lena, maybe it’s best if you stay out of sight for a while. Billy Ray knows you’re in Brighton.”

“What! How’d he find out?”

“He called me this afternoon, Lena. He mentioned some guy named Eddie—”

Lena slapped her hand on the back of an orange chair.

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