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about what would happen if she didn’t go along with anything he said. He’d been even more explicit about the consequences if she so much as looked longingly at Ted. He’d invited his cousin to torment Coreen, and it was working. He was in a better humor than he’d enjoyed in months.
    â€œGet us a drink. What will you have, Ted?”
    The older man declined and he didn’t stay long. Ted had never come back to visit after that. Barry met his cousin occasionally and he enjoyed telling Coreen how sorry Ted felt for him. She knew that Barry was telling him lies about her, but she was too afraid to ask what they were.
    Her life had become almost meaningless. It didn’t help that her earlier clumsiness had been magnified tenfold. She was forever falling into flowerpots or tripping over throw rugs. Barry made it worse by constantly calling attention to it, chiding her and calling her names. Eventually she didn’t react anymore. Her self-esteem was so low that it no longer seemed important to defend herself. She tried to run away. But he always found her…
    He mentioned once how his mother, Tina, had controlled him all his life. Perhaps his weakness stemmed from her dominance and the lack of a father. His drinking grew worse. There were other women, scores of them, and in between he was cruel to Coreen, in bed and out of it. He was no longer discreet with his affairs. But he was less interested in tormenting Coreen as well. Until that card came from Sandy on Coreen’s birthday, the day before the tragic accident that had killed Barry. It had Ted’s signature on it, too, a shocking addition, and Barry had gone crazy at the sight of it. He’d gotten drunk and that night he’d held Coreen down on the sofa with a knife at her throat and threatened to cut her up….
    A sudden buzz of conversation brought Coreen back to the present. Shivering from the memory, she focused her eyes on the big oak desk where the lawyer was sitting and realized that he was almost through reading the will.
    â€œThat does it, I’m afraid,” he concluded, peering over his small glasses at them. “Everything goes to his mother. The one exception is the stallion he willed to his cousin, Ted Regan. And a legacy of one hundred thousand dollars is to be left to Mrs. Barry Tarleton,under the administration of Ted Regan, to be held in trust for her until she reaches the age of twenty-five. Are there any questions?”
    Ted was scowling as he looked at Coreen, but there was no shock or surprise on her face. There was only stiff resignation and a frightening calmness.
    Tina got to her feet. She glanced at Coreen coldly. “I’ll give you a little while to get out of the house. Just to stem any further gossip, you understand, not out of any regard. I blame you for what happened to my son. I always will.” She turned and left the room, her expression foreboding.
    Coreen didn’t reply. She stared at her hands in her lap. She couldn’t look at Ted. She was homeless, and Ted controlled the only money she had. She could imagine that she’d have to go on her knees to him to get a new pair of stockings. She was going to have to get a job, quick.
    â€œShe could have waited until tomorrow,” Sandy muttered to Ted when they were back outside, watching Tina climb into the Lincoln.
    â€œWhy did he do that?” Ted asked with open puzzlement. “For God’s sake, he was worth millions! He’s involved me in it, and she’ll have literally nothing for another year, until she turns twenty-five! She’ll even have to ask me for gas money!”
    Sandy glanced at him with faint surprise at the concern he’d betrayed for Coreen. “She’ll cope. She knew Barry wasn’t leaving her much. She’s prepared. She said it didn’t matter.”
    â€œHell, of course it matters! Someone needs to talk some sense into her! She could sue for a widow’s