Wicked Forest Read Online Free PDF

either confirmed or disproved it." he said. "My sister is not above using a trick like this to get me to do something she wants or not do something she doesn't want."
    "Like what?" I practically shouted at him.
    He took a deep breath, bit down on his lip, and then brushed back his hair.
    "You know, of course. who Kirby Scott was."
    he began.
    "Yes. My mother's stepfather, the one who seduced and raped her. Linden's father. I know about all that," I said, waving away the words like so many sand flies.
    Of course. I knew. The story was practically engraved on my heart. After my grandmother's husband, a naval officer, was killed in a helicopter accident, she and my mother, who was about twelve at the time, moved to West Palm Beach, where my grandmother. Jackie Lee Houston, worked in upscale restaurants until she met Winston Montgomery, a very wealthy widower twenty-five years her senior. He fell in love with my grandmother and married her, bringing her to Joya del Mar. After Winston died, my grandmother fell in love with a debonair Palm Beach playboy named Kirby Scott. They were married, and Kirby eventually took advantage of Jackie Lee. In practically no time, he gambled and spent my grandmother's fortune and left her nearly bankrupt.
    Before that, he had seduced my mother and she had become pregnant with Linden. It was a well-hidden pregnancy. My grandmother tried to convince the world that Linden was her child. For a long time, she even had Linden convinced of it.
    "We've been through that sordid tale, Thatcher.
    I don't see how that matters at the moment."
    After a moment more of hesitation. Thatcher said. "Your mother wasn't the only one he seduced, apparently, or at least according to my sister."
    "What is that supposed to mean? Who else did he seduce, and what does it have to do with us.
    Thatcher? You're not making any sense and frankly—
    "
    "My mother," Thatcher blurted.
    I stared at him. Was this a dream? He was telling me his mother was seduced? And by the same man who had started this whole mess?
    "What?" I asked. Surely the devil wind had been playing with our words, twisting and turning them to suit its impish pleasure.

    "Let's continue to walk a bit." he suggested, as if he had to put more distance between us and his parents with every small revelation.
    "Thatcher—"
    He put up his hand.
    "Let me explain. Immediately after you had those nasty words with my mother, she called Whitney, She's closer to Whitney than she is to me.
    They have more similar goals in life, share values, are more sympathetic to each other's little
    disappointments."
    "So?"
    "My mother poured her heart out, which really means her fears, poured that into Whitney's receptive ears, complaining to her about the whole sitnation.
    Whitney claims she then told my mother she had to take me aside and tell me the truth. Apparently. if I am to believe any of this, it is something my mother shared with her many years ago, but kept from me.
    "Right after that conversation, my mother had one of her more serious breakdowns. Let me quickly explain what that means. She goes into a deep depression, won't get out of bed, won't eat, sobs uncontrollably.... My father calls me whenever that happens, and we get her over to what's best described as a spa, where she is given exaggerated tender loving care, the works—mud baths, facials, massages, you name it.'
    "How fortunate for her that it takes so little to restore her happiness," I said dryly.
    He nodded, but looked at me with a critical sideward glance.
    "You know. Willow. if I can offer you some constructive advice for a moment... I'm sure what made your father the great success he was had a lot to do with his tolerance and compassion. I never denied my mother's weaknesses, and still don't. but I don't hate her for that. In fact, even though I'm not a professional therapist. I sympathize and treat her as you will someday treat a similar patient. I'm sure. I humor her, cajole, reason with her.
    "Yes, there