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Show I leaned my forehead against the cool metal booth and a deep, ^ dry cough rose from my c h e s t . No t e a r s . "At l a s t i t s over," I told my r e f l e c t i o n in the s t e e l . I had feared t h i s for so long; perhaps now there was nothing l e f t to fear. I rushed across the s t r e e t , not watching for cars, feeling that my heart could stop at any moment anyway. Then I was inside the restaurant, t e l l i n g them. Brian. Then Danny. "You're kidding," Danny said. Just like my father, rejecting reality when i t d i d n ' t f i t his way of seeing. Hadn't anyone else felt i t coming, f e l t t h i s t i d a l wave about to break over us? "It has f i n a l l y happened," I whispered. "Thank God I was ready for i t . " Danny held h i s arm t i g h t around me, as though we would both fall apart if he l e t go. "Who would do i t ?" "No question. The LeBarons," I said, thinking of E r v i l 's deepset, buring eyes. But l a t e r , when we took the children to Brian's mother, the car radio blared the news. "Two women murdered a Salt Lake City physician in his medical office t h i s a f t e r n o o n . . ." My mind cinched over my h e a r t . "No! Not women,!" I looked ^wn at my hands and f e l t a h o r r i f y i n g complicity, expecting to see ^m stained or marked in some way- The image of forbidding Ervil kBaron was replaced by the t e r r i f y i n g vision of a resentful, Elfish woman bent on destroying my f a t h e r ' s p a t r i a r c h a l power. Perhaps he had refused to admit her to his family, or he had refused her drugs or an abortion. . . . |