lie to make you mine. And that is the God’s honest truth!”
* * *
IT HAD TAKEN her some time to pack up her belongings and then bundle Matt’s clothes and toys scattered around his room. His room. No longer. The possibility of a life with Evan had been too good to be true. Why had she been so naive?
Evan had the good grace to help her pack. Sullen and silent, unhappiness on his face as if etched in stone. He’d said that he loved her. If he’d said those words just an hour before, she may have believed him. But now? Her response was to turn on her heels and walk away.
She didn’t believe his words. Couldn’t. Not with the pall of deception between them. He let her go, but his parting words still echoed in her mind. Believe it or not Kelly, I love you. Promise to call me if you need me. I want to talk this through.
She had answered, “You shouldn’t have done it.”
He shook his head, pain filling his eyes. “I didn’t, Kelly.”
But the elevator arrived and she stepped in, her world reduced to two suitcases and a satchel filled with toys. She wouldn’t let Evan call a taxi for her, let alone help her with her things. She didn’t trust herself to be in his company another minute. After the way they had made earth-shattering love, she was too damned raw to look at him.
Luckily she’d arrived at Donna and Jack’s late enough that Matt was asleep. She had no idea how she would break the awful news to her son that the man he called Dad for the first time in his life had just vanished from the picture. Every one of her worst nightmares were coming true.
Donna and Jack had already been in bed when she arrived and hadn’t seen the news. They assured her that her arrival was welcome and offered her the couch to sleep on. When she told them what happened they sat stunned.
Jack looked at her as if she was suspect. “So did you seduce the senator?”
She momentarily closed her eyes, her head aching at the realization that those would be the first thoughts that jumped into everyone’s mind. Amazing how seeds of doubt and mistrust could be so easily planted by a convincing argument.
She huffed in annoyance. “Well, surely you know me better than that, Jack?”
He opened his palms unabashedly. “I do, but I’d still like you to answer me because you’ll be hit with the same question from all directions until you feel battered and bruised.”
“I already feel bruised. Betrayed. Dishonored.”
Donna had grabbed her hand from where they sat together on the couch. “I believe you, Kelly. This whole ordeal must be awful.”
Jack insisted. “So, what happened, Kelly? Is Matt Buzz Campbell’s kid?”
“Shush, Jack! Matt might hear you,” Donna said.
He waved a hand. “He’s been asleep for a few hours now.”
“I don’t care. Voice down.”
Kelly waved a hand. “It’s okay. Matt sleeps like the dead.” She looked at this couple whom she’d only known since Matt started day care two years ago. But what did it matter? If she intended to fight Buzz Campbell, which she did, she’d have to get comfortable telling her closely guarded secret out loud—over and over again.
“Okay, I will tell you what Evan knows. But understand one point. I require your discretion with this information. It could wound Matt terribly and I will do nothing to hurt my boy.”
Jack nodded. “Fair enough.”
She took a moment to collect her nerve. She’d spent seven long years making the assault become a memory of little importance. The joy and love she received from her precious son had made the task easy. Never speaking of it had somehow deadened it in her mind. Made it seem as if it had happened to someone else—another Kelly from long ago.
Building a life for Matt, renovating Neverland, developing her network of friends had all worked as a catharsis for what truly mattered in life. Retelling the story made her feel dirty again. The shame of the attack was gone. Through counseling she’d learned to understand that she had been a victim of someone else’s actions, actions of which she’d done nothing to attract.
But recounting the event brought the moment alive in her mind. She’d often wondered if her rooms had been set on the other side of the Campbell house more for Buzz’s convenience rather than her own privacy. When she’d awakened to see Buzz standing over her bed,