The Vision Read Online Free PDF

Max.”
    “Alan, for Christ’s sake!”
    “I mean it.”
    She opened her eyes, sat up straighter. “You’re being silly. Ridiculous. I won’t listen to any more of this.”
    “If I didn’t care what happens to you, I could walk out right now. Whether you want to hear it or not, I’m going to say what I think is true about him.”
    She sighed.
    “He’s an opportunist,” Alan said.
    “So what?”
    “He likes money.”
    “So do I. So do you.”
    “He likes it too much.”
    She smiled indulgently. “I’m not sure you can ever like it too much, dear.”
    “Don’t you understand?”
    “Enlighten me.”
    Alan hesitated. There was sadness in his beautiful eyes. “Max likes
other people’s
money too much.”
    She stared at him, surprised. “Look . . . if you’re saying he married me for my money—”
    “That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
    “Then it’s
you
who’s pressing me too hard.” There was steel in her voice now.
    He changed his tone with her, spoke softly. “All I’m trying to do is make you face facts. I don’t—”
    She raised herself up, away from the headboard. “Am I so ugly that no one would want me if I were poor?”
    “You’re beautiful. You know that.”
    She wasn’t satisfied. “Then am I some mindless little twit who bores men to death?”
    “Don’t shout,” Alan said. “Calm down. Please.” He seemed genuinely grieved that he had hurt her. But he didn’t change the subject. “Plenty of men would give everything they own to marry you. And for all the right reasons. Why you ever picked Max—”
    “He was the first decent prospect, the first full-fledged man who asked.”
    “That’s not true. I know of four others who asked.”
    “The first two were spineless wonders,” she said. “The third one was about as gentle and considerate in bed as a bull is in the ring. The other one was virtually impotent. Max wasn’t any of that. He was different, interesting, exciting.”
    “You didn’t marry him because he was exciting, or because he was intelligent or mysterious or romantic. You married him because he was big, strong, and gruff. A perfect father image.”
    “Since when have you practiced psychiatry?”
    She knew Alan didn’t want to pick at her like this. He continued only because he felt she needed to hear it. He was being a conscientious big brother. Even though he was misguided, his intentions were admirable. If she hadn’t been certain of that, she would have asked him to leave.
    “I don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know that you need to lean on someone. You always have. From the day you realized what your clairvoyance was, what it meant, you’ve been frightened of it, unable to deal with it yourself. You leaned on me for a while. But I wasn’t tall enough or broad-shouldered enough to fill the role for long.”
    “Alan, for the first time in my life I have the urge to slap your face.”
    He came around and sat down on the edge of the bed. He took her left hand in both of his. “Mary, he was a newspaper hack, a washed-up reporter who hadn’t covered a major story in ten years. You knew him just six weeks before you were married.”
    “That’s all the longer I
needed
to know him.” She relaxed, squeezed Alan’s hand. “It’s working out fine, dear. You should be happy for me.”
    “You’ve only been married four months.”
    “Long enough to like him even better than I did when he proposed.”
    “He’s a dangerous man. You know his past.”
    “A few fights in barrooms . . . and he doesn’t go to barrooms anymore.”
    “It’s not as innocent as that. He nearly killed some people in those brawls.”
    “When they’ve had too much to drink and are feeling mean, some men will go after the biggest man in the room. Max was a natural target. He didn’t start any of those fights.”
    “So he says.”
    “No one ever pressed charges.”
    “Maybe they were afraid to.”
    “He’s changed. What he needed was someone who loved him,