The House Read Online Free PDF Page B

about France?” Elise whipped around.
    “I’m not going. I can’t. I’ve got to stay here and take care of Ed ward.” The words slipped out.
    “Edward?” Elise gestured with her hands and frowned, the lines deepening in her face. Elise had held Anna throughout bouts of depression during the time of Edward’s constant absence when Anna felt overwhelmed with the children’s needs. “What’s he done now?” Elise asked.
    “Nothing, except set me free.”
    “And you’re choosing to stay in bondage?”
    “I’m going to help him.”
    “To do what? Destroy you? That’s all he’s ever set out to do. Ed ward Manning’s one intent is to make everyone he’s around as miserable as —”
    “He has cancer,” Anna said. “Edward has cancer. He’s dying.”
    “Serves him right.” Elise pursed her lips and arched her thin frame.
    “Elise, please.”
    Anna turned from her friend. She envied Elise’s body, and regretted having given so much of herself to Edward and their kids. She had nursed the children from infant stage into toddlerhood and many times ate the leftovers of four- and five-year-olds rather than preparing a decent meal for herself. Eighteen months ago she had joined the gym. Three months later, she announced that she wanted a divorce and retained Henderson to represent her. The slowness in shedding the extra pounds had forced her to continue exercising at the gym to relieve the stress of the divorce. Anna had entered her seventh month of exercising and was four months into the divorce proceedings when she’d met Inman Hayes at the gym. Just released from the hospital after a severe car accident, he’d come there for his first physical therapy appointment.
    “Does Inman know?” Elise probed.
    “No. I only learned two hours ago.”
    “You do plan to tell him?”
    “I have to.”
    “You’re playing a dangerous game. Inman loves you. He’s offering you your first chance at happiness. Now you’re turning around and—”
    “Edward’s dying.”
    “Let the dead bury the dead.”
    Anna arched her eyebrows.
    “I watched you make the horrible decision of marrying Edward Manning, and all that’s resulted,” Elise said. “None of us liked him. Least of all your mother.”
    “She was a horrible judge of character.”
    “And all of the rest of us were, too?”
    Anna folded her arms and turned toward the window that opened onto the patio next to the empty pool.
    “You think I don’t know?” Elise grasped Anna’s arms.
    Anna shook her head in another attempt to free herself from what Elise was making all too explicit.
    “You have spent your entire life trying to be with Edward Manning when he doesn’t even know how to be with himself. He’s arrogant and self-absorbed, has had more affairs than you have under panties, and he’s still not happy.” Elise continued. “At least you took the time to wash your lingerie. He just kept moving forward, never looking back at the damage he caused. You had enough and broke free of him. Now with a chance at happiness and everything you’ve wanted, you’re forfeiting it all for Edward?”
    “It’s not that simple. The children love their father,” Anna defended. “I can’t abandon him, not now.”
    “And you don’t think they love you if you don’t continue to sacrifice your life for Edward?” Elise touched Anna’s shoulder and heaved a deep sigh. “The children need you. Thank God Linda found Brad and has someone to focus on her. You were so obsessed with Edward.”
    “I never ignored my children or their needs.” Anna stepped back and steadied herself against the impact of Elise’s implication. “I was always there for them, most of all Linda.”
    “If that’s the case, why do you think she tried to commit suicide?” Elise asked. “And Serine—she was always crying and begging me to explain why you were so unhappy. Don’t tell me it was because she was the last one home.” Elise grasped Anna’s arms. Anna pulled away.