Secret Sins Read Online Free PDF Page B

telling us, but that doesn’t mean you’ll work for anyone in this County or
     in the state of Colorado without my permission. You can take the job in France or
     you can leave with nothing but the clothes on your back and see how easy it is to
     feed yourself with nothing more than that. And don’t expect that no-account cousin
     of yours to do anything but laugh in your face. Because, by God, he hates us all.”
    And if it had been only anger in his gaze, something other than that flash of terror
     that filled his eyes, then she could have hated him. She could have allowed the years
     of desertions, the dark, lonely nights and even more desolate days to feed the anger
     growing inside her.
    She had no friends but one. She hadn’t had family to depend upon. She’d just been
     alone in one private school after another, with each move, each year until she swore
     she couldn’t bear another.
    If she had seen disinterest or just anger in her family’s eyes, in their faces, then
     she could have hated them as she wanted to.
    That wasn’t what she saw, but it wasn’t enough to hold back her own anger.
    “Disowning another grandchild, are you, Grandfather?” She gave a facsimile of a mocking
     laugh, but nothing could cover the pain spilling from her. “Why doesn’t that surprise
     me?”
    “If that’s what I have to do,” he snarled.
    “Dad!” Her father’s tone was a shocked warning as he spoke to his own father.
    “She’s been pushing for this for years,” her grandfather snapped. “She’s been begging
     for it. Always fighting over the fact that we preferred to meet her for a nice vacation
     rather than having her come here. Always running her mouth about her lack of family.
     Her lack of consideration in everything we gave her—”
    “What did you give me?” she cried out painfully. “An education? Clothes? That’s all
     you gave me.”
    “And just exactly what did you think we owed you?” he growled back.
    “You owed me a family,” Anna yelled with overwhelming fury, so filled with pain and
     anger she was shaking now. “You owed me the same love and devotion you gave me before
     I turned nine. That was exactly what you owed me. That, or to tell me what the hell
     I did to make you hate me so much.”
    The tears fell then. They filled her eyes, blurred her vision, and ran until she wondered
     if she would ever be able to stop them.
    “Why?” she sobbed desperately. “Why do you hate me?”
    “God, Anna, we don’t hate you.” Her father came out of his chair in a burst of anger
     so ferocious even Anna stepped back. “Why can’t you just accept that we’re doing our
     best to protect you?”
    She shuddered, shaking with her sobs as she faced him.
    “Because I don’t need to be protected from living. I need a life, Dad,” she cried,
     the pain building, burning inside her until she was terrified it would consume her.
     “Is that so hard to understand?”
    “Then get out there and get you a life.” Her grandfather waved his arm to the door.
     “But don’t expect it to be easy. I promise you, no one in Corbin County will dare
     help you. Especially Crowe Callahan.”
    “Like no one helped him, Rafer, and Logan?” she sneered back at him. “I always thought
     he must have done something so vile, so unforgivable, to have been denied your love.
     But that’s not the truth, is it, John Corbin? What they say in town, that you punish
     him because you can’t punish his mother for leaving and allowing herself to die in
     that car accident all those years ago, is true.”
    His face spasmed with pain. An agony unlike any she had ever seen filled his face.
    “And if she had done as I asked, then she would be alive now,” he stated, his voice
     hoarse as another sob shook her body. “I won’t make that same mistake with you, Anna.
     You can start packing for France, or you can be cut out of our lives just as easy
     as David Callahan’s little brat was.”
    Pain filled his voice and