Destruction: The December People, Book One by Sharon Bayliss Read Free Book Online Page A

like that. She slung her name at him as a decisive point that could end any argument.
    “What about her?”
    “Crystal was a feminist. She didn’t seem like the type to take a man’s last name, let alone let him abuse her and her children for years. And Odessa? She wanted to move overseas. I’m sure she would have moved at least out of Texas. Really though, she wouldn’t have moved anywhere. She didn’t even like to eat at the same restaurant twice. She would have travelled. She was always looking for something.”
    A tingling sensation shot from David’s fingertips to his earlobes. He felt as if he had fallen asleep halfway through a movie and then woken up and couldn’t follow the story. What the hell had he missed?
    She snapped her fingers in his face. “What’s the matter with you? Breathe.”
    “You knew her?”
    She tightened her hand into a claw shape and looked as if she might use it.
    “I
introduced
you, you asshole… or did you forget?”
    “But it wasn’t like that. I remember. It was in the laundry room at your apartment building. It was a Friday night. We went in there to get your clothes out of the dryer before we went downtown. She was in there guarding her clothes while they dried, reading a book. She was drinking something that looked really weird, and I asked her what it was. She said it was bubble tea. You told me her name and told her mine. We both said hi. I asked her if she was going to spend her whole Friday night reading. She laughed at me and didn’t answer. And that was it. You never mentioned her again.”
    Her eyes had narrowed with each word he spoke, and he didn’t realize why until a second before she said it out loud.
    “Oh my God.” She sucked on her tongue as if she wanted to remove a bad taste. “The detail… you remember what she was drinking the first time you saw her?”
    “It’s not a big deal. You’re a big picture person, but I’m more into details. I remember stuff like that. About everything… not just her.” Sort of true, but he hoped she wouldn’t test him. “I remember the details about when I met you, too.” That test, he would pass.
    “Did it start then?” She asked it quietly, as if she hoped he wouldn’t hear and wouldn’t answer.
    “No. Not right away. It was…”
    “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
    “You were friends with her?” he asked.
    “Sort of.”
    “Sort of? You said she never wanted to eat at the same restaurant twice. That must mean you ate at restaurants with her. Which ones? When?”
    “For God’s sake, David, that’s hardly relevant.”
    To David, it seemed critical. Which restaurant they ate at, what they ordered, and what they talked about. He couldn’t imagine any information more interesting—evidence that truly fascinating things happened in the world he knew nothing about.
What else happened when I wasn’t paying attention?
    “I’m just saying I knew enough about her to know there is a hole in the story somewhere. She would never let that happen.”
    She probably didn’t realize this comforted him. She might as well have stroked his hair and whispered,
It’s okay… none of it is real. She wouldn’t have done that to you
.
    “Those are my kids,” David said. “And hers. I know they are.”
    “I know.”
    “I agree with you. Of course, I do. The woman I knew wouldn’t have let that happen… but she did.”
    “What happened to the
man
? Did he go to prison?”
    “No, he wouldn’t go quietly, so they ended up gunning him down. He died before he was cuffed.”
    “Good.”

avid had fallen in love with Crystal shortly after he had fallen in love with Amanda. He had never intended to fall in love with Crystal, of course. He should have known better than to even spend time with her. To him, she stood out among all the rest at the crowded University of Texas campus. As if she wore red when everyone else wore black. He’d thought they could be friends. But he didn’t tell Amanda about his