Texas…Now and Forever by Merline Lovelace Read Free Book Online

her. For a moment she thought she’d stepped into a hothouse. Glorious arrangements of gladioli, long-stemmed roses, and irises occupied every horizontal surface and filled the air with a heavy scent. Gaily colored balloons bobbed above the baskets. The room was such ariot of color that it took a moment for her to focus on the petite, slender woman hooked up to the bank of monitors beside the bed.
    Despite Carl Bridges’s warning that Isadora Mercado had been brutally beaten, the sight of one side of her mother’s bruised, battered face had Haley reeling in shock.
    â€œOh, my God! What did they do to you?”
    She couldn’t hold back the soft, broken cry. In her horror, she forgot to color her voice with the light British accent she’d deliberately cultivated over the years. For that brief, paralyzing moment, she was Haley Mercado, ripped apart by anguish for her mother.
    With agonizing slowness, Isadora’s head turned. Bandages covered part of her face. What was exposed showed mottled bruises. Both eyes were swollen shut, but evidently the beating hadn’t affected her hearing. Swiping her tongue along dry, cracked lips, she croaked out an agonized whisper.
    â€œHaley? Is…is that you?”
    Tears streamed down Haley’s cheeks. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She hadn’t planned beyond this moment, hadn’t formed a coherent strategy beyond just seeing her mother.
    â€œPlease,” Isadora begged brokenly. “Please don’t play this cruel game. Are you… Are you my daughter?”
    Haley couldn’t deny her mother’s need, any more than she could deny her own. Sinking into the chair beside the hospital bed, she groped past the IV lines for her mother’s hand.
    â€œYes, Mom. It’s me.”
    A fierce joy lit Isadora’s battered face. “I knew it! I knew all along you weren’t dead.”
    Her fingers gripped Haley’s convulsively. Tears squeezed through the swollen lids. Her throat worked, forcing out each hoarse, joyful word.
    â€œJohnny kept insisting we had to accept the brutal truth. Even Ricky gave up and took out his grief on Luke and the others. But I never stopped believing you’d come home, Haley. Not for one minute!”
    â€œOh, Mom, I’m so sorry. So very, very sorry.”
    Overcome with guilt, Haley dropped her forehead onto their joined hands. For a moment the only sounds that filled the room were the soft beep of the IV pump and Isadora’s quiet sobs.
    As if seeking assurance, her mother reached across the bed with her other hand and patted her daughter’s cheeks, her chin, her nose.
    â€œWhat’s happened to you? Your face, your bones. You feel so thin. So different.”
    â€œI’ve lost weight. And I had surgery, Mom. Just around the cheeks and eyes. And here. Feel my nose.”
    Her fingers trembling, Haley guided her mother’s hand down the smooth, elegant slope the cosmetic surgeon had crafted.
    â€œOur little bump is gone,” Haley said, smiling through her tears. “I miss it. Almost as much as I’ve missed you and Daddy and Ricky.”
    â€œOh, Haley!” Her bruised face contorting, Isadora gripped her daughter’s hand with both of hers. “What happened that night, out on the lake? Where did you go? Where have you been all this time?”
    She answered the easiest question first. “I’ve been in London.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you let us know you were all right?”
    The anguish in her mother’s voice cut her to the quick.
    â€œI couldn’t, Mom. I had to let you and Frank believe I was dead.”
    â€œFrank? Frank Del Brio is the reason you disappeared?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œBut you accepted his ring. You were engaged. I never understood why, but I thought…we all thought you must have seen something in the man the rest of us didn’t.”
    â€œI did. His utter ruthlessness.”
    She