Page 64 of Silent Deception
“I will, darling. But not just yet.”
Feeling a sudden chill, he reacted the only way he knew—with the anger that had marked most of their years together. “You think we have anything to say to each other? I can’t imagine what.” He shoved his chair back and launched to his feet. “If you feel a need to be here, then I’ll leave.”
“Sit, Clint. Don’t make this any harder than it already is.” He halted halfway out the door. “I don’t have the energy to hunt you down, but you can bet I will.”
He turned slowly and shut the door, then silently waited for the words he knew were coming.
“I didn’t go to New York. I was having chemo in Dallas.” She laughed. “It isn’t the first time. Five years ago, and then two, thanks to my lovely cigarettes...and now it’s spread. I’m not trying to fool myself about the future.”
He didn’t know what to say. She’d always been indomitable. A force as powerful as the never-ending Texas wind, with keen intelligence and a code of ethics that had brooked no excuses. She’d bent to no one.
Until he’d threatened their children.
“I know this isn’t going to break your heart, so don’t even try to say something appropriate,” she added with a dry laugh. “I’m sure the world will be a more peaceful place without both of us in it.”
The world suddenly felt like a veryemptyplace. In all these years, he’d never imagined anyone or anything could get the better of his Charlotte.
“When?” he managed, once he’d found his voice. “How long?”
“I haven’t exactly made an appointment. The doc says three months, maybe four. But what does he know?”
It was so much easier being at war with her.He turned, helpless, needing to take some sort of action or provide a solution. But there was absolutely nothing he could do. Unless...
“What about doctors someplace else? Mayo? Back East?”
“I’ve checked every avenue. Somehow, I’d always thought I could accept death easily enough. But my values changed a tad when I was actually confronted with it.” She gave an airy wave of her hand. “And now, I’ve decided I’d rather have quality time than a messy fight that makes my last months miserable.”
“You’ll stay here, then,” he announced rather than asked, needing to take control of a situation that had veered too far from reality to comprehend. She only smiled back at him.
“Nothing will change. I’ve got my place in Dallas. I’ll be back to visit the boys and my grandchildren, while I can. I don’t,” she added firmly, “want them to know.”
“Is thatfair?”
“I don’t want them to know just yet,” she amended. “I’ll tell them in a couple of months. Until then, I want good memories for them, not sad ones.”
“You’re wrong, Charlotte.”
“Am I? Take a hard look at what you stole from me all those years ago. What you stole from the boys. And then tell me you don’t owe us all this one good thing.”
