Dark Angel (Casteel 2)

wife. "What did you tell him? What could you tell

him? Your daughter never confided anything to the

mother she despised!"

Jillian stood in her lovely suit in unwrinkled

perfection, seeming about to open her mouth and

scream. "Did my mother come to you, Jillian, and tell

you why she had to run? Did she, did she?"

"Go away. Leave me alone."

I persisted. "What made my mother run from

this house? You've never adequately explained. Was it

a five-year-old boy? Or was it your husband? Did my

mother come to you with tales of her stepfather's

sexual advances? Did you pretend you didn't know

what she was talking about?"

Her pale hands pulled at her loosely fitting rings, on and off, on and off. I'd never seen her wear rings before. Mindlessly she dropped three rings into an ashtray. The small clatter of the rings striking crystal caused her eyes to widen. "I don't know what

you're talking about."

"Grandmother . . ." and I said this clearly,

sharply, causing her to shudder as she went dead

white. "Was Tony the reason my mother ran from this

house?"

Her cornflower blue eyes, so like my own, went

wide, stark, bleak, as if I'd snatched the floor from

beneath her feet. Gossamer strands of sanity seemed

to shred before they snapped behind her eyes, and her

hands fluttered helplessly to her face. Her palms

pressed tight on either cheek, so tightly her lips parted

and from them came screams, terrible, silent screams

that tortured her face--and suddenly Tony was there,

yelling at me!

"Don't you say one more word!" He stepped