Midnight
Sarah's heart flamed, then turned into ashes, leaving a gaping hole in her chest, where it had rested a moment before.
"Pregnant? Yo-you were sleeping with her and me? My God, all that time I thought you loved me and this is what was going on. I can't believe this bull"
Ray tightened his hands on her shoulders, his dark eyes glittering, the heat in his touch reaching deep into the place she'd kept hidden all these years. "I did love you," he said sharply. "I loved you with everything I had inside me, Sarah. You were my world."
She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her. "But how could you?"
"I said she was pregnant," he interrupted again. "I didn't say I was the father."
Sarah fell still, the words echoing inside her head, her brain incapable of unscrambling the situation. Through the years, she'd accused him of many different sins in her mind but this possibility had never entered the realm of thinking. Not this.
Ray dropped his hands from her shoulders but didn't move away. He was so close she could see his pulse jumping at the base of his neck, could smell the soap he'd used that morning. All her senses went on high alert and suddenly she was even more aware of him than she had been before. After a moment, she realised he hadn't answered her. With an almost Herculean effort, she pulled herself together and focused once more.
"Why did you marry Joan, then? Why would you do that if you weren't the father of her baby? I don't understand...."
"She was raped," he said bluntly. "She went out on a blind date and the guy roughed her up then raped her. When she learned she was pregnant, she didn't know what to do. The guy was long gone and even if he'd been around, she would have had nothing to do with him".
"She came to me and asked for help." He raised his gaze. "I couldn't walk away from her, Sarah. She wouldn't have survived."
"Wouldn't have" Sarah broke off her incredulous words. "She could have gone to the police! She could have told the counselor at school. She could have gone to her church. Damn it, Ray, there're a million places Joan could have gone for help besides you."
A sudden memory broke free. "Damn, Ray, her father! Joan's father was the sheriff! He could have found the guy. He could have"
Ray shook his head, then closed his eyes, his face going pale at the pain. It took him a second to look at Sarah again. When he did, she could tell the anguish he was feeling came from a deeper place than the wound he'd just received.
"She couldn't tell him, Sarah. He was a total son of a bitch and he would never have believed her. He'd been beating her for years and I believe he would have killed her if he'd known.
"I was the only one who could help her."
To be continued
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