Murder Of A Snake In The Grass Read Online Free PDF Page B

amazing how fast you mature when you’re fired, jilted, and left flat broke.”
    Luc refused to look her in the eye as he said, “I didn’t get you fired.”
    “True, but you didn’t stand up for me either. You didn’t tell them to lay off. When your friends decided I had to be shut up to protect Mr. Big Shot, head of New Orleans society, you didn’t lift a finger to help me.”
    “And I was wrong. I should have fought at your side, but I was weak back then, and you were accusing the most powerful man in town of sexually molesting his daughter.” Lucfingered a crystal bowl on one of the bookshelves. “And she wasn’t even a student in your school.”
    “Where she was enrolled was beside the point. I was a mandated reporter, which meant if a kid came up to me on the street and told me she was being abused, I had to tell the authorities. But that’s beside the point. The point is, a child was in trouble and asked me to help her, and you didn’t want me to because it might hurt your place in society.”
    “I know, and I recognize now how selfish that was. But at the time, especially after she took it all back and said she had lied to get her parents’ attention, I… I took the easy way out.” Luc’s knuckles turned white as one hand gripped the other. “I have suffered for it.”
    “She had been coerced into changing her statement,” Skye said. “It was obvious she was frightened of her father.”
    “You could see that, but I couldn’t, because I didn’t want to. All I could see was that you had done your duty. You made your report. The accusation was investigated and determined to be unfounded. There was nothing more you were obligated to do. You could have let it go.” Luc moved to gaze into her eyes. “I wanted you to let it go.”
    “But I couldn’t. The psychologist is the conscience of the school. We have to say the words that people don’t want to hear and expose the truths that people would rather deny. We are the advocates for the children, and believe me, that is not always a very popular position.”
    Luc’s face was sober, but he didn’t respond.
    “I had to try to talk the girl into telling the truth, if not for her sake then, for her younger sister’s.” Skye stared into his blue eyes, hoping to see compassion there.
    “The sister, don’t think she hasn’t haunted me every day since this all happened.” He looked away. “I thought there was nothing I could do. I didn’t want to see what I should be doing, because it would ruin my own comfortable life.”
    “Oh?”
    “Once you approached her again and started to stir thingsback up, her father was hell-bent on seeing you crushed. If I had tried to stand by you, he would have destroyed my whole family. A St. Amant would never have danced at the Comus ball again.”
    “And to you that was more important than a child’s welfare.” Skye blinked back a tear. “More important than me.”
    “At the time, I told myself that this girl, who you didn’t even know, was more important to you than me.” Luc stared at her. “And that you would accomplish nothing by ruining our lives.”
    Had she pursued the matter beyond all reasonable hope for a positive outcome? Skye wondered. Maybe subconsciously she had known she would never fit into Luc’s world and had sabotaged herself. Could it be that at some level she’d realized it was easier to live with being kicked out for a righteous cause than for being personally inadequate?
    Suddenly Skye could almost see Luc’s point. He had always talked about their daughter being queen of the Comus ball. That would have been a tough dream to give up. “I think I understand the motivation for what you did, but I still don’t understand why you did it the
way
you did.”
    He took her hand. “I was wrong to leave without a word.”
    “And to take everything.”
    “Yes, even though it was all mine. I had paid for it all.” A line formed between his eyebrows. “I should have been more