If You Must Know by Beck Jamie

Author:Beck, Jamie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

AMANDA

To break the silence, I cranked the soundtrack to the most recent Pride & Prejudice movie upon returning home from work. That music still moved me despite my own fraudulent Mr. Darcy. Channeling Lizzy for the courage needed to handle the task ahead, I sat at the kitchen table and smoothed out the handwritten page of questions for Lyle’s father that I’d compiled this morning. To protect my daughter, my mother, and myself, I had to be better able to predict Lyle’s behavior, which meant I needed the facts about his entire life instead of relying on his version.

It was past time for this step, but somehow my heart hadn’t gotten the message. It fluttered violently despite my having practiced my introduction at least four times during the short drive home. With the phone held to my ear and my eyes closed, I held my breath while it rang.

“Hello?” came a gruff, bored voice.

My body stiffened. It took two heartbeats before I could answer. “Mr. Foster?”

“Take me off your list—”

“Wait, I’m not a telemarketer. I’m . . . I’m Lyle’s wife.” So much for practiced eloquence. My gaze settled on the empty space of the kitchen desk that used to house my engagement photo. After my family had left last night, I’d taken every photograph of Lyle out of their frames and cut them into pieces. It struck me then that I’d never seen a picture of Lyle’s father. My husband had never even described the man’s appearance, so I imagined a paunchier, graying version of Lyle, which didn’t calm me down. When he didn’t respond, I asked, “Mr. Foster?”

A long sigh came through the line. “Is he dead?”

Goodness, what a question. No wonder Lyle had left home.

“No!” Despite the many recent moments when I’d wanted to kill him. Maybe not literally, but pretty darn close.

“Yeah, I suppose people like him have nine lives.”

I blinked. People like him? An unkind remark, but given what little I knew of this man, I’d expected a derisive tone, not this melancholy one. Having prepared for combat, I had to shift gears and ease my way in.

“Sorry to call out of the blue. I would’ve reached out sooner, but Lyle never let me. Now I have no choice, because I need to better understand the scars his mom caused. Will you answer a few questions?”

“‘Scars his mom caused,’ eh?” He scoffed. “Sounds like he sold you the same cock-and-bull story he told his first wife.”

I slumped back on my chair as if struck by an arrow. Each breath hurt. “His first wife?”

Lyle hadn’t mentioned that on our marriage license. Not that another lie should startle me at this point. He’d had another wife. A wife! Of all his lies, the one in which he’d said he’d spent a lifetime searching for me somehow suddenly hurt the most. I’d been his second choice—my destiny, it seemed.

“Dana, or no—Deanna . . . Yeah, Deanna. Only met her once. Sweet girl. Real giving, just like his mother, who spoiled him rotten, God rest her soul.

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