Read Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 02 - Portrait on Wicker for Free Online

me. He would disappear for weeks at a time and by the time I did see him I was afraid to complain.
    “ He kept telling me he intended to put his wife in a home, divorce her and marry me. I decided to paint his portrait and when it was completed, I invited him over for dinner.
    “I thought it would mean something to him but it seemed to make him angry. After dinner I excused myself and, I’m ashamed to say this, I went into the bedroom and took off all my clothes.
    “When he saw me, he jumped up and picked me up and threw me on the sofa. I was so excited. I thought it was finally going to happen.
    “He put his knee in my belly and held me down and slapped me hard. My dad had always been very gentle when he had sex with me and that’s the way I thought it would always be with older men.
    “Y ou would have thought that would have cured me of him, but it made me want to please him all the more. I had apparently offended him.
    “I finally found out where he lived and went to see him. Trudy was sitting on the front porch. I told her I was going to help her.
    “I was planning on helping her by getting Calvin to marry me. I thought if he had me, he wouldn’t need any more little girls.
    “He saw me and went ballistic. He told his wife to call the police and that he didn’t know who I was or what I was trying to pull.
    “I got out of there as quickly as possible. I thought I was finally cured but when he called three days later, I was on cloud nine.
    “He said he wanted to take me on a trip, sort of a pre-wedding honeymoon but I couldn’t tell anyone. I didn’t even let Jean know I was leaving. I was afraid he would try to talk me out of it.
    “On the way to the airport, I decided to tell Calvin that I was Julia instead of Judith. I then invited him to come and stay with me at my beach house in St. Augustine.
    “He chuckled like he appreciated the joke I had played on him and for the first time told me he loved me. This meant everything to me and I would have walked on hot coals for him at that point.
    “While we were waiting for the plane to Jacksonville, I excused myself and went to the ladies room. When I came back toward him, he was on his cell phone and he was saying something like, ‘wait for us at the airport and then follow us, but don’t let her see you.’
    “When I asked him who he was talking to, he hung up and said he had been arranging for someone to stay with his wife.
    “I should hav e been warned by this, but I shut it out of my mind. Judith could you pour me some water. My mouth is dry from all this talking.”
    We waited silently while she drank her water. Mimi looked like someone had drained the life out of her. Tracy looked both angry and like she was trying to figure something out.
    I can’t say what I looked like but I felt so sad to think Julia had been going through all this by herself. I was also angry that she hadn’t reached out to me. I could understand in a way, but it still made me both angry and sad.
    Finally Julia took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
    “This part is so hard to talk about because of the shock I felt when I knew I had been betrayed.
    “Calvin rented a car at the airport and we drove to the beach house. As soon as we pulled around the back of the house and parked the car, another car pulled in behind us.
    “At first I thought it might be so meone who had the wrong address, or someone turning around. He got out of his car as we were getting out of ours. I recognized him. It was Mackey Broleen.
    “Calvin laughed when he saw the shock on my face. ‘Yes, he is alive,’ he said. ‘The look on your face is priceless. He’s here to help me dispose of your body after we’re finished with you.’”
    Julia put her face in her hands and began to cry. I hugged her and she kept saying she was sorry.
    “It’s all right,” I told her. “Can you finish your story? I know it’s hard.”
    I took some tissue and wiped her eyes. “We’re going to catch these