Web of Dreams (Casteel 5)

my girlfriends, silly and full of giggles. Her eyes were

twinkling as she smiled up at the ceiling. I stood there

speechless, staring down at her. Could it be that she

was unaware Daddy had told me everything? "Daddy told me about your telegram," I blurted. She looked up at me, her smile slowly fading,

the glimmer in her eyes dying. The vigor and

brightness lifted from her face. It was as if she were

coming back to earth, back to reality. Her eyes grew

cold, her mouth tight. She took a deep breath and sat

up slowly and with great effort. Then she took off her

cap, unpinned her hair and shook her head to let the

strands fall free.

"He was supposed to leave it to me to tell you,"

she said with remarkable calmness. "But I'm not

surprised. I'm sure he put it all horribly, making it

sound like the failure of some business venture. What

did he tell you, our marriage was bankrupt?" "Oh no, Momma, Daddy is heartbroken," I

cried. She smirked and got up to go to her vanity

table. "Did you really go to Mexico and get a divorce?" Some stupid childish part of me was still

hoping beyond hope that perhaps it wasn't all true. "Yes, Leigh, I did. And I'm not sorry." Her

words felt like needles being poked in all over my

body.

"But why did you do it? How can you do it?" I

screamed, enraged at my mother. I hated how little

she seemed to care about how I was affected by her

selfish decision. She sat down and turned to me. "Leigh, I was hoping you would be adult about

all this now," she said calmly, but firmly. "I have been

wanting to do this for some time, but I held off until I

thought you were old enough to deal with it on a

mature level. I've gone through months, years of

added suffering just so you would be old enough to