An Indecent Marriage by Doreen Owens Malek Read Free Book Online Page A

in the future you will realize that I was right. I don’t expect you to thank me now, but someday you will.”
    “Never,” she murmured. “Never.”
    He waited and saw the exact moment when she made up her mind. “If I do this, you won’t hurt Jack or his family?” she asked, eyeing him levelly.
    Portman’s mouth hardened. “That kid will get what he deserves eventually.”
    “Promise me,” Jessica said. “Promise, or I don’t go.”
    “You have my word on it,” Portman said grudgingly. Then, almost to himself, “Let him try to latch on to someone else’s money by seducing their daughter. He won’t get mine.”
    “If I find out you’ve done anything to him I’ll come back and take out an ad in the paper telling the whole story to the world,” Jessica said fiercely, knowing this was the direst threat she could utter. Portman’s reputation was everything to him. It was the main reason he was shipping her off to Arthur’s waiting arms.
    “This is no time to blackmail me, young lady,” Portman replied. “You’re hardly in a position to bargain.”
    “I mean it. You leave Jack alone.”
    “I think you had better go upstairs and pack,” Portman said mildly, ignoring her last statement. “I’ll get Arthur on the phone and tell him to meet your plane. I’ve already checked the schedule, and there’s a flight out of Bradley at one tomorrow. I’ll have to inquire about your finishing high school. I’m sure there’s a night course or something that can be arranged.”
    “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?” Jessica asked bitterly.
    “I try to be thorough.” Jessica moved toward the hall, and he called after her. “And Jessica, I wouldn’t try to contact that boy in any way. Just a warning.”
    “He’ll try to find out what happened to me,” she replied, sickened at the thought of Jack’s bewilderment, his desperation at her disappearance.
    “You leave him to me,” Portman said.
    “What will you tell him?” she asked anxiously.
    “Something that will shut him up and keep him from running after you. That’s my affair. You go and get your things together.”
    Jessica heard him on the phone as she climbed the stairs, feeling as if her whole world were collapsing around her. It was all too sudden, too awful to absorb. But there was one thing that made her absolutely determined to go through with her father’s plan: it was the only way to save Jack.
    When the plane left Springfield the next afternoon, she would be on it.
    * * * *
    “Jessica?”
    Her sister’s voice floated up the stairs, ending her reverie.
    “Jessica, are you up there?” Jean called.
    “Yes, I’ll be right down,” Jessica answered, coming back to the present with a jolt. Jean must be home from school on her lunch hour.
    Jessica stood and smoothed her skirt, wiping away the tears her painful reminiscence had brought. She glanced in the mirror as she walked to the landing, thinking that the past was a closed book, and there was enough for her to deal with in the present to keep her occupied. She must not indulge herself that way again.
    She adopted a cheerful demeanor and descended the stairs to meet her sister.

 
    Chapter 3
     
    Jean was standing at the foot of the stairs and rushed to embrace her sister as Jessica reached the hall.
    “It’s so good to see you,” the younger girl said happily. “I spotted the car outside so I knew you were home. When did you get in?”
    “Early this morning. I went to the hospital first and then to see Ransom.”
    “How is Dad?” Jean asked, her voice concerned, her blue eyes large and full of doubt. The nine-and-a-half-year gap in their ages had given Jean a different picture of their father. She thought of him as old and sickly, struggling to maintain a failing business. She had no memory of the tyrant Portman had been when Jessica was Jean’s age.
    “The same,” Jessica replied. “You know doctors, they won’t tell me anything.”
    “Can I visit him