Pawleys Island-lowcountry 5 by Dorothea Benton Frank Read Free Book Online Page A

happening. What had I done? I would lie there in a pool of my own tears, and he would leave the bed in a silence of inexplicable disgust to sleep in the guest room.
    I would have done anything to hold my family together. I made their favorite meals. They said dinner sucked. I asked them if they’d like to watch a movie, that they could use pay-per-view and choose anything they would like to see. They said no way, they had other plans. No matter what I did or what I offered, it was refused and refused callously with everything from eye rolling to snide remarks. By the time Sami and Evan left for their summer camps in Maine, I just held my breath waiting for Nat to deliver the hand grenade. He did not disappoint.
    I came to Pawleys Island as soon as I could and not just to escape the gossip. Like any small city, Charleston’s drums would beat with a jungle-like fervor when there was news of a domestic blowup. I could only guess what people were saying about me. After all, what kind of a mother loses her children? Her home?
    A bad one. An unfit one.
    That’s what kept me up at night. Had I become like my own mother? I would call you a liar if you repeated this, but the truth, the deep ugly truth, is that in some secret part of my heart, I was relieved to be out of there. I felt so weary and bruised from playing all the mind games with Nat. My children had broken my heart into thousands of pieces. They said they hated me. My own children hate me. Can you imagine such a horrible thing? All I had ever done was to love them and try to be a good parent and they hated me for it.
    I had never slapped them or abused them in any physical way. Their clothes fit and were clean, pressed and neatly put away. Every afternoon I greeted them with snacks—some cookies or brownies—when they came home from school. I never made personal plans for anything until I knew that their needs were met. I had been den mother to Evan’s Cub Scout troop and class mother for Sami at least three times, and I had taken them to Sunday school without fail to be sure they received a religious education. I made beautiful birthday parties for all of them and holidays were out of a magazine.
    I volunteered for everything to try to distinguish our family’s reputation. I had been an officer in the Junior League and chaired committees for the symphony and the museum. I had done everything I could to make them happy and to set a good example. They hated me.
    Anyone would have wanted to run away—at least, that’s what I told myself. Litchfield Beach was the perfect escape for me.
    My old roommate from Carolina, Claudia Kelly, was the closet thing I had to a best friend. My friends in Charleston were carpool friends, soccer game parents—but that’s what happens when you’re raising children. Claudia was the only friend who had survived all the changes in my life. Even though she lived in Atlanta and had a very busy practice in plastic surgery, we still managed to stay in touch and to see each other at least once a year. The condo I was staying in at the Crescent was hers. She had always said, Use it! Use it! So, with the subpoena still in my hands, I had called her from outside the courtroom. She was as completely surprised by Nat’s shock-and-awe campaign as I was.
    “Becca! That’s outrageous! How can he get away with this?”
    “I don’t know,” I said.
    She said, “You’ll go to the condo at Litchfield and stay there. Don’t tell the son of a bitch where you’re going either. Let him explain to everyone where you are. I’ll come down as soon as I can and we’ll figure this out.”
    I knew that there was nothing anyone could do. It seemed to me that Nat had somehow sewn up the whole deal before I even knew what was afoot. The only people he would have to explain my whereabouts to were the parents of our children’s friends. Most kids were away at camp, so I wouldn’t be talking to their parents until school started again. And, of course,