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first fell in love would help us
reconnect. I’d hoped that I would remember how it was in the beginning for us.
But the truth is I can’t help wondering if she was lying to me even then.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You know we kind of had to get
married. But then Ivy said she lost the baby.”
    “ Said she lost the baby?”
    “Now that I’ve spent years with
Ivy, I’ve learned that she twists the truth to fit her needs. She’s so
narcissistic, she’d make a terrible mother. I think she knew that.”
    “Maybe.” Beth had never heard
Parker speak like this about Ivy. No matter how much the woman jerked him
around in college, he always came back for more.
    “I hate to say this, but. . . I
sometimes wonder if she got rid of the baby.”
    Beth tried not to gasp. Would
Ivy have had an abortion? Had she stolen him away from Beth with a lie? Anger
and fear and regret swirled inside her, tightening her chest. “What makes you
think that?”
    “When I was ready to start a
family, I suggested we consider adoption, but she refused. I don’t think she
ever wanted kids. Look how she wimped out of today’s service project. She’s a
child herself. And that’s the way she likes it.”
    Well, Beth couldn’t argue with
that. “Even so, that doesn’t mean Ivy purposely did something to end her
pregnancy. I remember how devastated she was. She cried for weeks.”
    “But only when she thought
people were watching. I saw her once right afterward when she thought she was
alone. She looked out the window, touched her belly and smiled. We were married
by then and I didn’t want to believe it. I thought we’d have more children, that we’d go on with the lives we’d planned. Ivy
kept singing in night clubs while I worked all day. Without children to bring
us together, we grew apart.”
    “Wow, Parker. I’m sorry I don’t
know what to say. Ivy always bragged that she was daddy’s little girl who could
do no wrong. But as far as lying about an abortion, I don’t think she would.”
    “I probably should’ve divorced
her years ago, but. . . I didn’t want to fail.”
    Beth could relate. She was a
perfectionist, too. But relationships weren’t like school or work. You couldn’t
just study harder. You didn’t get a report card to let you know how things were
going. What you got were pecks on the cheek instead of a kiss on the lips. You
got “sorry I’ve got so much work to do” instead of a romantic weekend. You got
a little girl thrown between you, taking the place of your own family.
    He shifted in his seat. “I
shouldn’t have dumped all of this on you.”
    “No, it’s okay.” Should she tell
him about Ivy bringing some guy back to the hotel room last night? Was her
loyalty to her girlfriend or to Parker, the man for whom she obviously still
harbored a crush? Well, it was more than a crush.
    She’d been robbed of the man who
would’ve made everything right.

 
    CHAPTER
THREE
    Parker typed “painless suicide”
into the search engine on his laptop. Most men would go for a gunshot to the
head, but surely there was something more civilized. The first website he found
was a ruse—a warning from some religious group that suicide would mean
he’d burn in hell, complete with a video of someone on fire. He quickly clicked
off that site and onto another. Drowning, suffocation, hanging. All of that
sounded horrible. Not as horrible as if he did nothing, though.
    Apparently if he went to Mexico
he could get an over-the-counter drug used for animal euthanasia. He’d have to
think about that.
    He heard the hotel room door
unlock, and Ivy giggling as she entered. He turned off his computer and flipped
the lid down. “Feeling better?” After settling Beth into her room across the
hall with her leg propped up on pillows, he’d sat alone, watching the sunset
outside his window. That was an hour ago.
    Ivy’s smile fell. “I was crazy
tired when I was sorting at the Salvation Army. After a little nap, I decided
to