The Edge of Eternity. Amanda Stevens

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      Turning on the water at one of the sinks, she washed her hands, then moistened a paper towel and held it to her face, wincing at the dark circles under her eyes, the fine lines in her face that hadn’t been there eighteen months ago.

      She didn’t look like herself anymore, which was fitting, she supposed. She wasn’t herself. She wasn’t the same Elizabeth Blackstone who had taken her eyes off the road long enough for a drunk driver to swerve into her lane, hitting her vehicle head-on.

      The doctors had later told her that it was not uncommon to suffer short-term amnesia following a trauma. She might never remember the details of the crash, but after a while everything had come back to her…Damon buckled into the front seat beside her, screaming a warning because he saw the car first. And then her own scream. The sound of brakes squealing, metal crunching and her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

      Later, the sirens. She’d been told that she hadn’t been conscious when the paramedics arrived, but she remembered their voices, their frantic shouts as they used the Jaws of Life to pry her and Damon from the car. She had been floating above it all, conscious on some level but helpless to change the outcome.

      When they finally got them free of the twisted metal, she knew when a policeman covered Damon with a sheet. The paramedics were frantically working on her, and she wanted to scream at them to leave her alone and go help her son. But it was too late. Damon was gone. And Elizabeth had wanted to die, too.

      She almost had. She’d lingered in a coma for over a week, and when she’d finally awakened, Paul had been standing by her bed. But he wasn’t the same person either. The man at her bedside wasn’t the Paul she had kissed goodbye the morning of the accident. That Paul was lost to her forever, and in his place was a remote, grief-stricken stranger. The same stranger she had been living with for the past year and a half.

      The door opened and an attractive redhead came in. She wore a pencil skirt and silk blouse accessorized with a simple gold chain and black high heels, the kind of classy yet sexy outfit that Elizabeth might once have worn for her husband.

      Her gaze met Elizabeth’s in the mirror as she took out her lipstick and began to repair her makeup. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

      “Gorgeous,” Elizabeth agreed.

      “It’s the kind of day that makes you glad to be in love,” the woman said with a laugh. “Have a good one,” she called as Elizabeth started out the door.

      The moment she came out of the bathroom, the pay phone in the lounge area started to ring again. Once again she paused. When no one came this time, she walked over and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

      “Elizabeth.”

      Her whispered name sent a chill up her spine as the blood in her veins turned to ice.

      Without thinking, Elizabeth slammed down the phone and spun, expecting to find someone standing behind her. Reaching out for her.

      No one was there. But as she stood motionless, the bathroom door opened and the young woman came out. She had her cell phone in one hand, but instead of making a call, she headed back out to the restaurant.

      The pay phone started to ring again.

      Elizabeth whirled back around and stared at it for a moment, then snatched it up. “Hello?”

      “I think I have a wrong number,” a masculine voice said with a sigh. “You’re not Carol, are you?”

      “No. This is a pay phone at a restaurant.”

      “Sorry to have bothered you.”

      “No bother,” she mumbled and hung up.

      Whatever had possessed her to answer the phone in the first place? Elizabeth wondered as she walked back to her table. And why had she thought she’d heard her name when she first answered?

      Obviously she was hearing things. Slamming doors. Music coming from Damon’s room. And now her name, whispered in a voice that sent another chill up her spine just thinking about it.

      Yes, it was definitely time to make a change in her life.

      Even though cell phones were taboo in the dining room, Elizabeth could see that Frankie was talking on hers as she approached the table. She quickly ended the call when she saw Elizabeth. “Hey, I was just talking to…” Her words trailed off. “What’s wrong?”

      Elizabeth barely heard her. Her attention was focused on one of the tables by the window, where the woman she’d seen in the restroom had just sat down with a dark-haired companion. The woman was laughing and leaning in intimately to hang on his every word. He had his back to Elizabeth, but when he turned to signal the waiter, she recognized his profile. It was Paul.

      It’s the kind of day that makes you glad to be in love.

      As the woman’s words came back to her, Elizabeth’s heart began to pound in slow, painful beats. She couldn’t seem to move. She stood mesmerized by the sight of her husband with another woman.

      Frankie followed her gaze and then gasping slightly, stood and grabbed Elizabeth’s arm. “Come on, honey. Let’s get out of here.”

      She kept a firm hold on Elizabeth’s arm as she led her out of the restaurant and then, once they were on the street, she started to swear.

      Elizabeth said nothing.

      Her tirade finally over, Frankie swiped back her black hair. “Okay, I feel better.” She gave Elizabeth a sympathetic look. “You know I’d like to go in there and give that bastard a piece of my mind, don’t you? But we have to keep things in perspective. It’s not the end of the world. You’re going to divorce him anyway. Granted, he should have let the ink dry on the final decree before he got himself a hot, young girlfriend….” She swore again and clapped a hand to her mouth. “I can’t believe I just said that. I’m sorry, Lizzy.”

      Elizabeth shrugged. “It’s okay.”

      “No, it’s not okay. The man’s a pig, but show me one who isn’t. Let’s just try to look on the bright side here. If he’s got a girlfriend, he’s not going to want to make waves about the settlement. That gives you leverage. Power.” Frankie’s brown eyes gleamed in the sunlight. “You can stick it to him but good after this.”

      She was right, Elizabeth tried to tell herself. She and Paul were getting a divorce, so what did it matter if he was already seeing someone else? He was a young, handsome, successful businessman. Elizabeth hadn’t expected him to be on the market forever. It would have been nice if he’d waited, as Frankie said, until the ink was dry on the divorce papers, but in the long run it didn’t change anything.

      So why did she feel so hurt? So utterly devastated and betrayed? Paul had a right to find happiness. They both did.

      It’s okay, she kept telling herself over and over. It was going to be okay.

      “Let’s just get back to the shop,” Frankie said. “We can talk about it there.”

      Elizabeth hesitated. She didn’t want to talk about what she’d just seen. Not yet. It was too fresh. Too confusing. “I think I’ll just walk around for a while. You СКАЧАТЬ