All Fall Down Read Online Free PDF Page B

unusual shade of blue with white spangles around the iris—a family trait he’d told her had been shared by his father and two of his uncles. Liesel had always hoped to see eyes that color in a child of her own.
    If there was any doubt this girl belonged to Liesel’s husband, those eyes chased it away. Christopher had given some other woman what he was willing to give his wife only by a lack of prevention, not effort. How many times had he told her that he didn’t want children? That he didn’t like kids. How many times had his lip curled at the sight of a toddler running rampant in a restaurant while he pointed out to her that was exactly why they were better off without any rugrats. A thousand memories washed over her like waves of broken glass, each one stinging and leaving behind a wound.
    “Thanks, Liesel. Christopher,” Sunny said quietly. “Thank you.”
    Liesel didn’t ask him to help her with Sunny or the kids. Cartoons forgotten, she took them upstairs and showed them the guest bedroom, which had been used only the few times when her mother came to stay. It seemed suddenly too small, stuffed with three children and a young woman who seemed also very much a child.
    Liesel went to the windows to open the curtains and let in the light. “The bathroom’s through this door, the shower—” Liesel stopped, stunned when she turned around to see Sunny had already begun stripping out of her clothes. The casual nudity was surprising enough, but the scars were really what set her back a step.
    White slashes like claw marks on Sunny’s pale back.
    She turned, giving Liesel an eyeful of her nipples while the baby in her arms sucked greedily from one of them. Her tuft of pubic hair was thick, ungroomed; Liesel couldn’t remember the last time she’d been face-to-face with a naked woman who’d had more than a landing strip.
    “I’ll take Bliss in with me,” Sunny said as though nothing at all was out of place. “Happy, Peace. Come with Mama and wait in the bathroom while I take a shower, okay?”
    Happy and Peace stared at Liesel without smiles. Big wide eyes, solemn faces. Peace had a finger stuck in her mouth. She hadn’t spoken a word the entire time she’d been here.
    “The shower has to run for a minute or two before it gets hot,” Liesel managed to say. “There’s soap, shampoo, towels and stuff under the sink. I’ll be downstairs with your…with Christopher. Will you be okay?”
    Sunny stared at her so blankly, Liesel knew she’d asked a stupid question. What did okay even mean to a girl like Sunny? Instead, Liesel backed out of the room and went downstairs to her husband.
    “I’m sorry,” Christopher said before she could even speak.
    Liesel’s laugh was low and without much humor, but it surprised her anyway. “I just don’t get it, Christopher. Why didn’t you tell me?”
    His mouth worked, and he drew in a breath or two. “I didn’t really know.”
    There’d been a number of times in their marriage when he’d pissed her off. Mostly doing the sort of dumb stuff husbands always do that rub their wives the wrong way. He never answered his cell phone and he made plans without asking her first; he couldn’t put a towel in the hamper even if it would’ve saved a basketful of kittens. But she’d never thought he was in the habit of lying to her, at least not about important things. So as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, she knew he could tell she thought he was so full of shit his eyes had turned brown.
    “Not really,” he added quickly, like he could somehow salvage this.
    There was no saving it. Liesel gave him a look of such bone-deep disgust her face ached with it. Her lip actually curled.
    “I never… I didn’t… I’m sorry,” Christopher said miserably. “There’s not even any proof she is my daughter.”
    Again, it was the absolute wrong thing to say. “All you have to do is look at her. Or her little boy. Christopher, my God, he looks just like that