Virtue Falls by Christina Dodd

Author:Christina Dodd [Dodd, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Contemporary romantic suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9781250028433
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-09-08T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Elizabeth watched the pitted, broken road that led from Honor Mountain Memory Care Facility to town, and remembered her aunt Sandy’s rant.

You’re moving where? Have you lost your mind? It’s cold and it’s wet. There’re no restaurants or nightlife. The people are all hippies and organic freaks. Not to mention your mother was slaughtered there. And you’re going back to work on your murderous bastard of a father’s geological study and to visit your murderous bastard of a father in a nursing home? I swear, Elizabeth, sometimes I think living with us didn’t give you any sense at all.

Elizabeth pushed her hair off her forehead.

“What’s wrong?” Garik asked softly.

She rolled down her window and let the air wash over her face. The August day was warm, but that wasn’t why she felt sick. Aunt Sandy was right. Elizabeth didn’t have any sense at all, and now she was paying for it.

“Elizabeth?” Garik drove slowly, carefully, and glanced at her frequently. He wore a concerned frown and defiant green eyes. “Are you mad at me?”

She wanted to tell him he didn’t need to worry. She wasn’t mad that he’d evaded her question about his past. Right now, she was far too scared about her father to do more than sigh about Garik.

They hit a pothole deep enough to make her teeth snap together, and she burst out, “This road reminds me of my life. It’s going somewhere familiar, but every time I look up, there’s a new obstacle to jump, another hole to fall in.”

“Luckily, you don’t have to wait for the DOT to come in and repave you.”

She was not amused, and showed it with a quick glare and a hard sigh.

“Okay, okay!” Garik patted her bare knee. His touch lingered …

And she liked it.

His hand flexed, then as if he suddenly recalled the divorce, he took his hand away and put it back on the steering wheel. “You know what Dr. Frownfelter said. The second seizure wiped your father’s short-term memory. Forgetting is to be expected after a seizure. Your father has Alzheimer’s, which makes it doubly to be expected.”

“I know. But I was listening to my father. I was hearing him, believing him, and I felt as if he was telling my own history, as if what he said put me into context. Now, I don’t know if any of what he said was true.” Even to herself, she sounded whiny.

Garik pulled into the driveway that led into one of the state parks. The picnic area was empty, the restrooms demolished by three tall Douglas firs that had been uprooted and tossed like pick-up sticks. He turned off the motor, and the silence of the forest enveloped them. He faced her, his expression serious and intent. “You tell me. The pictures sure match the stories.”

“You’re right. They do.”

“You know your cousins. You know your aunt and uncle. Did what your father was saying sound real?”

“My uncle and that line about how he used to have a six-pack and now he has a keg—I’ve heard him say that a thousand times.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.