Best Kept Secrets(74)

done."

"Justice," Stacey sneered, her eyes narrowing with malice.

"You've got no right to even speak the word. You're

just like your mother--pretty, but shallow. Single-minded

and selfish. Uncaring of other people's feelings. Unable to

see beyond your own superficial desires."

"I take it you didn't like my mother very much," Alex

remarked, her voice laced with sarcasm.

Stacey took her seriously. "I hated her."

"Why? Because Junior was in love with her?"

Alex reasoned that if Stacey were going to hit below the

belt, she might as well, too. It worked. Stacey fell back a

step and groped for the dressing table to support herself.

Reflexively, Alex extended a helping hand, but the judge's

daughter recoiled from her touch.

"Stacey, I know that Junior married you only a few weeks

after my mother was killed. You must realize how odd that

strikes me."

"It might have seemed sudden, but we'd been dating for

years."

That surprised Alex. "You had?"



"Yes. And for most of that time, we'd been lovers."

Stacey threw that piece of news at Alex like a dart, sharply

and triumphantly. All it served, however, was to make Alex

pity her more. She had the full picture now of a plain girl,

hopelessly in love with the affable and handsome football

hero, willing to sacrifice anything, including her pride, to

have even scraps of his attention. She would do anything to

keep him near her. "I see."

"I doubt it. Just like Junior, you're blind to the truth."

"What is the truth, Stacey?"

"That Celina was wrong for him. Like everybody else,

she constantly compared him to Reede. Junior always came

out in second place. I didn't care how he measured up to

anybody. I loved him for what he was. Junior didn't want to

believe it, but in spite of your father and you, Celina would

have always loved Reede."

'' If she loved him so much, why did she marry my father?''

That question had been plaguing Alex for days.

"Celina and Reede had a falling out the spring of our junior

year. As soon as school was out for the summer, she went

to visit cousins in El Paso."

"That's where she met my father." Alex knew this much

of the story from her grandmother. "He was going through

boot camp at Port Bliss. Soon after they were married, he

got shipped to Vietnam."

Stacey sneered, "And after he died, she wanted to take

back up with Reede, but he wouldn't have her. That's when

she kindled Junior's hopes. She knew he'd always wanted

her, but he never would have pursued it, on account of Reede.

It was disgraceful how she played up to Junior, involving

him with her pregnancy. She might have toyed with the idea

of marrying him, but it never would have happened as long

as Reede Lambert drew breath.

"Your mother kept Junior dangling by a thread of hope.

She made his life miserable. She would have gone on making

him miserable if she had lived." The former Mrs. Minton

drew a choppy breath that caused her shapeless chest to stagger

as it rose and fell. "I was glad when Celina died."



A spark of suspicion leaped into Alex's eyes.' 'Where were

you that night?"

"At home unpacking. I'd just returned from a week's vacation

in Galveston."

Would she lie over something so easily checked? "You

married Junior right away."

"That's right. He needed me. I knew that I was only a

panacea for his grief, just like I'd always known when he

made love to me that it was Celina he really wanted. But I

didn't care if he used me. I wanted to be used. I cooked his

meals, took care of his clothes, nurtured him in bed and out."

Her expression changed as she lapsed into a private reverie.

"I overlooked the first time he was unfaithful to me. I was

crushed, naturally, but I could understand how easily it had

happened. Whenever we went out, women flocked to him.

What man could resist such a strong temptation? The affair

didn't last long before he lost interest.'' She clasped her hands

and studied them as she spoke softly. "Then there was another.

And another. I would have tolerated all his lovers if

only he'd stayed married to me.

"But he asked me for a divorce. At first I refused. He kept

on and on, telling me that he hated hurting me with his affairs.

When I was left no option, I granted the divorce. It broke

my heart, but I gave him what he wanted, knowing, knowing," she repeated with emphasis, "that no other woman

would ever be as right for him as I was. I thought I'd die

with the pain of loving him too well."

She shook herself out of the reflective mood and beaded