Read Lifelines: Kate's Story for Free Online

need money, or
something goes wrong with my car?”
    “If
your car gets sick, take it to a mechanic, like everyone else.” He tossed the
suitcase in the pickup bed and yanked open the driver’s door of his truck. “If
you run out of money, find a job. I don’t give a damn.”
    She
screamed after him until his taillights disappeared and she felt tears slide
down her cheeks. She stared into the dark, frozen in anticipation, as if the
night held magic to bring him back.
    Just
a bad dream ... like the fire ... like her father.
    Richard’s
truck would reappear and life would be wonderful again.
    He’d
promised he would never leave her, but he’d left her more alone than she’d ever
been before. She turned back to the house he built, walked slowly up the stairs
and through his door. Inside, she approached the antique desk he’d refinished
after she’d found it at an auction. She took out their checkbook.
    She
still needed books for her courses, a minimum of four hundred dollars. Unless
he froze the account and pulled the money out, she’d be able to buy them with
her debit card. If she took all the money out first thing Monday morning,
transferred it to her own account ... he would find out, and he’d be even
angrier.
    So
she would take the four hundred dollars now and add it to the seven thousand
she’d built up over the last two years. Then she’d pay for the books with
Richard’s Visa card.
    What
if he asked her to leave the house?
    What
if he hated her forever?
    When
the telephone rang, she realized Richard hadn’t meant any of the words he said.
He was already on his way back to her. She stumbled as she rounded the corner
into the living room, grasped the phone and yanked it to her ear.
    “Yes?”
    “Rachel?
Is that you?” Denny, Richard’s foreman.
    “What
do you want?” She could have sobbed her frustration.
    “I
know it’s late, but I need to speak to Mac.”
    His
name is Richard, you asshole!
    She
tucked the receiver harder against her ear and wrapped her free hand across her
midriff, the skin cold now where the sweater left it exposed. Sexy sweater with
no bra.
    Richard
hadn’t even noticed.
    “Is
Mac there?”
    “He’s
out.”
    “Oh.”
    The
pause stretched to seconds and Rachel felt humiliation. Denny would soon know
Richard had left, didn’t love her enough to stay.
    Denny
said, “I’ll try his cell phone, then.”
    “Do
that.” The bastard.
    “Okay,
thanks.” Still, he didn’t hang up. “Is everything okay?”
    “Fine.”
    What
had her mother used to say about the word fine ? Something ugly and
negative, words she couldn’t remember, or didn’t want to remember.
    “You’re
okay? Mac’s okay?”
    “We’re
fine.” Something about all fucked up, except the words fit the letters
f-i-n-e, converting a positive word into an ugly acronym to
slap Rachel’s face.
    How
are you, mom?
    I’m
fine.

Chapter Five
    T hree
o’clock in the morning, rain pounding outside, the sheets icy cold on David’s
side of the bed. David, who loved to ski in Colorado, had always laughed when
Kate complained of the winter cold.
    Kate
fled the memory-laden bed and rummaged in the closet until she found a thick
sweatshirt of David’s. Socrates watched her dress from his spot on the bedroom
carpet.
    Outside,
the rain felt so icy her teeth chattered as she put Socrates in the pen, and
herself in the car. She hadn’t locked the house, shouldn’t depend on Socrates
for security. Three in the morning, miserable icy rain. If someone wanted to
break in, let them.
    The
car growled when she turned the key, then the engine caught and she gripped the
cold steering wheel, surrounded by the ragged sound of the Subaru’s engine, her
world blanketed in darkness.
    Kate
turned left at the road, away from the contractor’s embryonic house. The world
felt quiet, solitary. One more turn and she reached Coast Road, broad curves
along the black water. Her wheels skimmed over wet pavement.
    She
should have brought