The Ex Who Wouldn't Die by Sally Berneathy Read Free Book Online

bullet that killed Charley, and when it doesn ' t match, we ' ll be done, okay? " Amanda moved to the edge of her chair, ready to rise, ready for this to be over.
     
    But the detective leaned back, obviously ready to continue.
     
    " How did you get along with Charley ' s family? "
     
    At least that was an easy question. " Charl ey didn't have any family . His parents were both dead by the time he was ten, and his younger brother drowned a year later . " There was, she thought, no need to go into the horrible details. None of Charley's life story was pertinent to the present situation.
     
    The silence in the room reminded her of the silences she typically caused at family gatherings. It would seem she had expanded her silencing ability to police interviews .
     
    Amanda stole a glance at her father. He was looking at his knees. That wasn't a good sign.
     
    Brian appeared to be as puzzled as she at the reaction to her uncomplicated answer.
     
    " Both your husband ' s parents are very much alive, " the detective finally said, "as well as two brothers, t hree sisters, several aunts and uncles , nieces and nephews and too many cousins to count. Half the population of Silver Creek , Texas , is related to your deceased husband. "

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
     
    The walls of the room seemed to move closer, making it harder to breathe. Silence whirled around her, trapping the words inside her head where they bounced from one side to the other and back again , echoing over and over.
     
    " Both your husband ' s parents are very much alive, as well as two brothers, three sisters, several aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and too many cousins to count. Half the population of Silver Creek, Texas, is related to your deceased husband ."
     
    Her oft-repeated assertion that every word out of Charley ' s mouth had been a lie took on a new depth of meaning.
     
    Charley had a family, a large family. She had in-laws she'd never met, never even known existed.
     
    Charley had claimed to be an orphan from Waco, had told her in graphic detail how his father, a twice-convicted drug-dealer, had been shot by an aggrieved husband when he'd caught Charley's father with his wife in a local motel the night Charley was born . Then when he was ten, his mother, a prostitute, died in his arms of a drug overdose.
     
    If his parents had any relatives, none stepped forward to claim Charley or his five-year old brother, Grady. Both had been sent to foster homes. Before a year was out, Grady drowned in the Brazos River, though Charley had taught him to be a strong swimmer. The couple had later been charged with physical abuse by another foster child, and Charley felt sure they killed his brother. As for Charley's experience, he lived in five different foster homes where he'd been used and abused and discarded, finally running away to Dallas when he was sixteen.
     
    Amanda had cut him a lot of slack, excused much of his bad behavior, because of his troubled childhood.
     
    Now as she contemplated the extent of his duplicity, she realized all those lies had tipped the scales in her decision to marry him. When she'd been indecisive, he declaimed sadly that he didn't blame her for not wanting to marry someone who was the son of an adulterer and a prostitute, someone who'd never been a part of a family and would likely be a poor excuse for a husband and father.
     
    She'd protested that her own family, while intact, was certainly no model for a '50's TV series, and to prove she didn't hold his unfortunate circumstances against him, she had, of course, agreed to marry him.
     
    Lies, lies and more lies.
     
    He'd manipulated her as surely as he'd manipulated all his other victims.
     
    If he w ere n't already dead, she'd kill him. Rip his lying tongue out of his filthy mouth, cut off his arms and legs with a chain saw, then shove his body in a wood chipper set on slow.
     
    She glanced across the room to her father. He met her gaze briefly but