Public Secrets Read Free Page A

only continue to stare at her, his head light and his stomach fisted. “Hello, Emma.” There was a sweetness in his tone now, one women fell in love with. “What have you got there?”
“Charlie. My doggie.” She held the stuffed toy out for Brian to examine.
“And a very nice one.” He had an urge to touch her, to brush his hand over her skin, but held back. “Do you know who I am?”
“From the pictures.” Too young to resist impulses, she reached out to touch his face. “Pretty.”
Johnno laughed and swallowed some gin. “Leave it to a female.”
Ignoring him, Brian tugged on Emma’s damp curls. “You’re pretty, too.”
He talked nonsense to her, watching her closely. His knees were like jelly, and his stomach tightened and loosened like fingers snapping to a beat. Her dimple deepened as she laughed. It was like watching himself. It would have been easier to deny it, and a great deal more convenient, but impossible. Whether he had meant to or not, he had made her. But guidance didn’t come along with acceptance.
He rose and turned to Pete. “We’d better get to rehearsal.”
“You’re leaving?” Jane dashed forward to block his path. “Just like that? You only have to look at her to see.”
“I know what I see.” He felt a pang of guilt as Emma inched back toward the cupboard. “I need time to think.”
“No, no! You’ll walk out like before. You’re only thinking of yourself, like always. What’s best for Brian, what’s best for Brian’s career. I won’t be left back anymore.” He had nearly reached the door when she snatched up Emma and raced after him. “If you go, I’ll kill myself.”
He paused long enough to look back. It was a familiar refrain. He could have set it to music. “That stopped working a long time ago.”
“And her.” Desperate, she flung out the threat, then let it hang as they both considered it. The arm she had banded around Emma’s waist tightened until the girl began to scream.
He felt a bubble of panic as the child’s, his child’s screams bounced off the walls. “Let her go, Jane. You’re hurting her.”

“What do you care?” Jane was sobbing now, her voice rising higher and higher to drown out her daughter’s. “You’re walking out.
“No I’m not. I need a little time to think this through.”
“Time so your fancy manager can make up a story, you mean.” She was breathing fast, gripping the struggling Emma with both arms. “You’re going to do right by me, Brian.”
His hands had balled into fists at his sides. “Put her down.”
“I’ll kill her.” She said it more calmly this time, having centered on it. “I’ll slit her throat, I swear it, and then my own. Can you live with that, Brian?”
“She’s bluffing,” Johnno muttered, but his palms were sweating.
“I’ve got nothing to lose. Do you think I want to live like this? Raising a brat all on my own, having the neighbors gossip about me? Never being able to go out and have fun anymore. You think about it, Bri, think about what the papers will do when I call in the story. I’ll tell them everything right before I kill us both.”
“Miss Palmer.” Peter held up a soothing hand. “I give you my word we’ll come to an arrangement that suits everyone.”
“Let Johnno take Emma into the kitchen, Jane. We’ll talk.” Brian took a careful step toward her. “We’ll find a way to do what’s best for everyone.”
“I only want you to come back.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Braced, he watched her grip relax. “We’ll talk.” He signaled Johnno with a slight nod of the head. “We’ll talk it all through. Why don’t we sit down?”
Reluctantly, Johnno pried the girl from her mother. A fastidious man, he wrinkled his nose a little at the grime she’d accumulated under the sink, but carried her into the kitchen. When she continued to cry, he sat down with Emma on his lap and patted her head.
“Come on now, cutie, give over. Johnno won’t let anything bad happen to