"Goodbye, Paul."

The day's ride on an emotional roller coaster

exhausted me. After I put Pearl to sleep, I crawled

into bed myself. I lay there for a while with my eyes

open debating about calling Beau. I just dreaded the thought that Gisselle would find out I was calling, however, and I decided against it. I would wait for him to call me. I shut my eyes, but despite my fatigue, I tossed and turned, fretting in and out of nightmares, some of which had terrible things happening to Paul and some had terrible things happening to Beau. How fragile our lives were, I thought. In seconds, everything we had, everything we learned, everything we built, could become dust. It made me question what were really the most important things and what

were not.

I knew Paul must have driven fast despite his

promises, because he was at Cypress Woods very

early in the afternoon the next day. When I accused

him of it, he swore he had been able to end his

meetings earlier than anticipated. I was just finishing

my lunch and having coffee on the patio. Pearl was

beside me in her playpen, sitting comfortably and

coloring with her crayons. She couldn't stay within the

lines, but she was content smearing the colors over the

faces and figures, pretending she was doing what

Mommy did. Occasionally she would stop and raise

her eyes to see if I was watching and admiring her

work.

"Another artist in the family," Paul declared

when he sat down.

"She thinks she is. Did your meetings go well,

then?"

"I signed a new contract. I don't want to tell you

the numbers. You'll tell me they're obscene, just like

you did the last time."

"They are. I can't help feeling guilty about

making so much money when there are so many

people in need of the simple, basic things."

"True, but our industrious work and clever

Tags: V.C. Andrews Landry Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net