Dark Angel (Casteel 2)

without moving.

"From the very beginning of my marriage to

Jill, Leigh seemed to hate me. She could never forgive

me for taking her mother away from her father. She

adored her father. I tried to win her affections. She

wanted none of that. I didn't do a thing to harm her,

and eventually I stopped trying to win her over. I

knew she blamed me for her father's desperate unhappiness.

"I came home from my long honeymoon with

Jill disillusioned. Horribly disillusioned. I tried not to

let anyone see it. Jill isn't capable of loving anyone

more than she loves herself and her everlasting

youthful image. My God, how that woman loves to

look in mirrors!

"

I grew disgusted seeing the way she had to

have every hair in place all the time, always glancing

to check on the shine on her nose, checking for

lipstick smudges."

His smile was crooked, bitter. "And so I came

to realize too late that despite all the beauty Jill possessed, no man could love Jill for anything other than

her facade. Jill has no depths. She's just a shell of a

woman. Everything sweet, and thoughtful and kind

went into her daughter. I began to be more aware of

Leigh in a room than I was of her mother. Soon I was

noticing a lovely adolescent girl who seldom glanced

in any mirror. A girl who loved to wear simple, loose

garments that fluttered when she moved, and her hair

was long and loose and straight. Leigh waited on

Troy, with pleasure and joy she waited on Troy. I