Page 51 of Our Little Secret

“Oh God.” Rolling her eyes to the ceiling, Leah sighed and shook her head, as if replaying an argument in her mind. “It’s complicated.”

“Is it?” To relieve some pressure in her ankle, Brooke leaned a hip against the counter while Leah returned to her chair, scooting it so she could look outside to the backyard and the view beyond.

“Maybe not so much,” Leah confided and took a long swallow from her glass. “Out of the blue last week it all came to a head. Well, maybe not completely out of the blue. We’d been fighting for weeks. Over money.”

Brooke remembered Sean’s love affair with gambling.

“And then there was my insecurities—you know I have them—and I also want kids and he doesn’t. His new job is a lot of pressure and, well, we fought about everything, I guess . . .” Her voice trailed off. Absently, she twirled the stem of her glass between her fingers, then cleared her throat. “Anyway, we got into it again. I found out he hadn’t been paying the property taxes on the house, and worse than that, he didn’t pay the IRS.” She frowned, her eyebrows pinching as she glanced at her sister and confided, “They didn’t like that much.”

“No, they don’t.”

“I didn’t know it, of course, I’d signed a return that he was supposed to file, but . . .” she shrugged, “. . . I guess I suspected. It’s not like this was the first time. And he’d invested in some company on the advice of his ‘friend.’” She made half-hearted air quotes. “Sean handles all the finances, but I’m not an idiot, I saw the past-due notices so, as I said, we got into it and he stormed out and I did some digging. Guess what?” She looked up at Brooke, tears forming in her big eyes. “He has a girlfriend.” She sniffed. “A friend of mine—at least I thought she was a friend—and they’ve had this affair going on right under my nose for about six or eight months as near as I can tell.” Her face collapsed in on itself and she let out a sob.

Guilt, hot and razor-sharp, cut through Brooke. She swallowed hard. “Oh Leah, I—I don’t know what to say, except that I’m so, so sorry, but it sounds like you’re better off without him.”

“The worst of it was that he never loved me,” she squeaked out, her voice an octave higher than usual as she reached under the nearby cupboard to the paper towel holder. Sniffing, she ripped off a towel and swiped at her nose.

Automatically, Brooke said, “No, no, no. That’s not true.”

“No? How would you know?” she demanded. “There’s just something about me that men find attractive and then . . . and then don’t.” She was blinking, her face red. “This isn’t the first time, Brooke. You more than most people should be aware of that, but I’m sick and tired of it!”

So there it was. The same old, awful point.

Leah took in a deep, shuddering breath. “My money’s gone,” she finally admitted.

“No.” Brooke didn’t want to believe it, but hadn’t she suspected as much? Hadn’t she expected some sort of dramatic revelation? Some reason her sister had insisted on visiting now? “You still have assets,” Brooke ventured.

“Uh-uh. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“But—”

“Everything I inherited from Nana?” Leah cut in, anticipating the argument. She looked at her sister and snapped her fingers. “Gone.”

Brooke couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to. She and Leah had each inherited a good sum from their grandmother. “But—but I thought you invested it.”

“As I said, Sean took over. Handledeverything.” She looked away, embarrassed. Her neck and cheeks had flushed a darker hue. “Yeah, yeah, I know I was . . . stupid, but I loved him. I trusted him and . . .” Fresh tears rolled down her face.

Brooke was stunned. She’d seen Leah through a lot of tough times and some financial struggles. She and Neal had helped Leah out in the past, but over the years, no matter how bad things had gotten, Leah had assured her that her inheritance was safe, tucked away in some kind of government-insured bonds that couldn’t be cashed in without big penalties, so she’d never touch them.

Leah angled her face upward while she played with the stem of her glass, twirling it between her fingers. “So now he wants a divorce and I don’t even know if I can afford one.” Her jaw hardened. “You know what they say about luck, that if I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any.” Her lips pursed, and Brooke felt the unspoken blame. Because nothing had changed with Leah over the years. She believed all of her problems, all of the sadness in her life and the bad choices she had made, were Brooke’s fault.

And maybe Leah was right.

At that moment they heard the garage door roll upward.

Shep scrambled to his feet and his toenails clicked frantically as he raced to the top of the stairs to wait and whine for Neal.

Leah, calmer now, turned accusing eyes at her sister. “Guess who’s home?” she said, as if she knew all of Brooke’s secrets. “Daddy dearest.” Her expression remained neutral as Neal’s footsteps could be heard on the steps. “Tell me, sister,” she asked softly, “is he still the love of your life?”

CHAPTER 12

With Shep at his heels, Neal appeared and took in the emotional tableau, then held up one hand. “I, uh, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You aren’t,” Leah said. “We were just talking about you.”

His jaw slid to one side and his eyes found Brooke’s. “Nothing good, I guess.”

“Oh, so you did eavesdrop.” With a cool look, Leah scooted her chair back and retreated up the stairs.