Abiding Love Read Free Page B

Lexington’s activities, it would probably be a confrontation shadowed by the past.
    Her mother’s call was the first in the three-and-a-half months since she’d learned that Xandra had decided to remain at New Life Inn and work part time for Elizabeth there. Her mother’s outrage had been nearly as overblown as her last bout of hysteria. That one had come when she’d learned that Xandra’s divorce was final.
    For Xandra the divorce had been like a miracle. Her first stop after fleeing her home had been San Diego, California, at a city-run abuse center. There she’d met Virginia Talmadge, a tough old broad of an attorney. Talmadge had devised an ingenious strategy to force Michael Balfour into agreeing to a quick no-fault divorce.
    First, the savvy female attorney had filed for a restraining order and had gotten it with the use of pictures of Xandra’s bruised and battered face. All it had taken from there was the threat that Xandra would go public with the pictures, ruining Michael’s social standing unless he cooperated. He’d agreed to a quick divorce on grounds of his infidelity—which Xandra couldn’t prove—instead of being sued on the grounds she could prove.
    After the papers were filed, Xandra began to suspect she was being followed. So she’d taken off, heading for home where she’d thought she would be safe with her parents. Once there, of course, she’d confirmed they believed she was the one in the wrong. She’d also learned that Michael’s detectives were looking for her.
    Knowing Michael had hired detectives had frightened her, but she’d consoled herself that she’d made it to Pennsylvania with complete freedom only six months away.
    Even now, though the divorce had been final for several months, her parents’ outrage was a huge barrier between them. Still, getting the chance to rant and rave about two more Boyers “invading” town had been enough to break down her mother’s most recent wall of silence.
    Mitzy Lexington had run into Adam and Mark Boyer at a local restaurant the night before. And in true Mitzy style she’d dealt them the same kind ofvitriolic treatment she’d been handing Elizabeth for years. She’d told Adam in plain terms what she thought of his beloved sister—of Elizabeth’s supposed “false cries of rape,” which hadn’t been false at all. Her mother just refused to believe it.
    Xandra didn’t need to be a witness to know just how it had gone down. The words describing Elizabeth as some sort of modern-day Jezebel would have been loud enough for others to overhear, with any mention of the rape said in a quiet undertone to protect Jason’s sainted reputation.
    With Elizabeth on her honeymoon, Adam wouldn’t find out that his sister and his son’s guidance counselor were actually friends now and she doubted he’d believe her. The friendship had been formed and forged for reasons Xandra just wasn’t yet able to go into with a stranger, especially the parent of a student. It was her private pain and Elizabeth’s. So it looked as if her mother and circumstances had conspired against her again, and Xandra had little doubt that the meeting would be strained at best and pretty ugly at worst.
    Neither of which would serve Mark Boyer’s interests. Her only chance to salvage the whole mess was to try having Mark assigned to the other guidance counselor. So, with no time to spare, Xandra rushed to Principal Harper’s office. The bespectacled, balding principal looked up, then stood as she skidded to a halt in his doorway.
    “What can I do for you, Alexandra?”
    She handed him Mark’s file. “I wondered if youcould assign Mark Boyer to A. J. Charles instead of me.”
    Principal Harper set the file in the middle of his desk and gestured to the chair across from him. After she sat, he settled his thin form back into his desk chair. “I don’t understand,” he said, a frown carving a deep furrow between his heavy eyebrows. “Are you afraid of the boy? Did he