Recovering quickly, she stood and signaled to two decorators who were
bickering over samples. "Brian and I want to discuss our choices a
little more. I'll call you by the end of the week."
She hurried them out, making promises, flattering. When she closed the
door on them, she took a deep breath, holding a hand over the baby
growing inside her.
"This is Emma."
Bev forced a smile. "Hello, Emma."
. "Lo." Suddenly shy, she buried her face in Brian's neck.
"Emma, would you like to watch the telly for a while?" Brian gave her
bottom a reassuring pat. When she only shrugged, he went on,
desperately cheerful. "There's a nice big one in this room over here.
You and Charlie can sit on the sofa."
"I have to pee," she whispered.
"Oh, well ..."
Bev blew her bangs out of her eyes. If she hadn't felt so much like
crying, she might have laughed. "I'll take her."
But Emma clung tighter to Brian's neck. "I guess I'm elected." He took
her to the powder room across the hall, sent Bev a helpless look,
then closed the door. "Do you, ah pulled down her panties and sat.
He trailed off when Emma
"I don't wet my pants," she said matter-of-factly. "Mam says only
stupid, nasty girls do."
"You're a big girl," he said, stifling a fresh flow of rage. "Very
pretty and very smart."
Finished, she struggled back into her panties. "Can you watch the
telly?"
"In a little while. I need to talk to Bev. She's a very nice lady," he
added as he lifted her up to the sink. "She lives with me, too."
Emma played with the running water a moment. "Does she hit?"
"No." He pulled her into his arms, holding tight. "No one's going to
hit you again. I promise."
Then, he carried her out, past Bev, to a sitting room with a cushy sofa
and a big console television. He switched it on, settled on a loud
comedy show, and said, "I'll be back soon."
Emma watched him walk out, relieved when he left the door open.
"Maybe we'd better go in here." Bev gestured to the parlor. Inside, she
sat on the floor again and began poking at samples. "It seems Jane
wasn't lying."
"No. She's mine."
"I can see that, Bri. She looks so much like you it's scary." She felt
tears well up and hated herself "Oh Christ, Bev."
"No, don't," she said when he started to slip an arm around her. "I
need a minute. It's a shock."
"It was one for me, too." He lit a cigarette, drew hard. "You know why
I broke things off with Jane."
"You said it felt like she could eat you alive."
"She wasn't stable, Bev. Even when we were kids, she was never quite
right."
She couldn't look at him, not yet. She reminded herself that it had