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“What? No answers? Why doesn’t that surprise , a far cry from the o “I’ll go in the h my lawyers later tomorrow”

He turned to leave the roo back to face her Erin pulled herself up straight, bracing herself for the next blow that she instinctively kneould come

“You know, I’d been prepared all along to consider joint custody of our son—soht to But you can forget that now All bets are off”

“How dare you say that,” she cried at his retreating back “No court in the world would give you full custody of a child You killed your wife, didn’t you? You admit yourself your work habits led to your accident How can you consider yourself a fit parent for sole guardianship when you couldn’t be there for your wife? Do you expect a court to believe you’ll be there for a baby?”

Saain This time the expression on his face showed the e back She flinched as he started to speak, his words like spears flying straight toward her

“Be very careful before casting stones inaway, the shoplifting—everything”

In that split second she knew he had sohtmare

“H-how?”

“How doesn’t matter And I won’t stop there, Erin Before I’ there is to know about you, now and froht when it coave her a grim smile “—that by comparison, my work ethic will be the least of my problems”

Thirteen

Theit had completed its task but Erin was oblivious She sank into one of the kitchen chairs, her whole body shaking with the enormity of what had just happened

Sa in the chair, her es of her life before she caht she’d put all that behind her, that by being a good eood wife and mother, that she’d paid her dues But now the ain

The death of the baby in the house she’d lived in had been horrifying on its own Being publicly vilified when she was accused of conspiring to conceal inforhtmare

She hadn’t even been hoirl had been injured and died After a night of drinking heavily, she’d passed out in an alley and woken in the ot back to the house, the police were there She’d arrived just in ti

The press had been there, the air filled with shouts and the flash and click of cameras She’d been confused and disoriented—and scared Very, very scared

She hadn’t willingly conspired with the others in the house, but she had been threatened, and threatened very convincingly, hat ht had happened It was no excuse, sure, for not telling the truth, but as she’d told herself at the time, ould have believed her anyway? She was just another runaway So and luck to get food in her belly each day Still, the guilt over her silence had haunted her, wrecking the tiny bit of peace ofher mother’s house

It had beco point The line in the sand where she knew she had one chance, and one chance only to et onto a solid path for a worthy existence She’d headed for Lake Tahoe, knowing she needed to get away At the hostel where she’d stayed, she’d found the advertisee…and the rest was history

Or rather, the rest had been history Now, if Saain She knew that if any of what had happened at that tied before a Faht deal with her Especially in light of whoe orld-renowned The man himself was charismatic, wared his responsibility for his wife’s death into the argu hiood man who’d make a wonderful father His lawyers would see to that