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Chapter 36

Author: Emily Kendricks
last update Last Updated: 2022-06-22 14:05:38
"Education is the most important issue on the political agenda today. Our children are our future, yet we have failed to give them the education they need to make a difference in the world. Half of all high school students in the state of Texas will not graduate. The rest will struggle to meet basic entrance requirements for major universities across the country. This is unacceptable."

Emma tried to listen as Steve made his speech. But she was distracted by a text message that seemed to be burning a hole from her phone through the pocket of her skirt. She knew the vibration meant that Tommy had written to her. Knew it because everyone else who mattered was here in this room. She could see Jen watching her from a front table, could feel her mother's eyes from the back of the room. Even her boys were there, playing in a back room with the very capable Sunday school teacher from the local Baptist church.

They had traded cellphone numbers on Thursday before she left him, before she left
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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 37

    Steve left an hour later. Emma meant to spend the rest of the day in her dark room, three rolls of film calling to her with the urgency she felt to develop them. But, like the day before, there always seemed to be something more important to do. Instead, she found herself curled up on the couch with one child in her lap and the other at her feet, an Iron Man movie in the DVD player and a bowl of popcorn half-forgotten on the coffee table."Why does Pepper get to use his suit, Mom?" Justin asked."He was protecting her.""But I thought only he could use it.""She's not using it, dummy," Seth said. "She's just hiding.""Not exactly," Emma said, knocking Seth with her foot. "And don't call your brother a dummy.""Sorry."Steve called as the credits began to play. Emma handed the phone to Justin, then gathered their glasses and went into the kitchen to load the dishwasher. Seth came into the room a few minutes later. "He wants to talk to you, Mom."She slipped the phone from his ha

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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 38

    Emma dropped the day's mail on Steve's desk. A manila envelope addressed to Steve in bold letters caught her eye. The writing was done in magic marker and there was no return address. And no stamp. Someone had to have put it in the mailbox themselves.Very clandestine. She smiled. Probably just campaign materials.She stepped out into the hall, about to call up to the boys when she felt a little pinch in her abdomen. She touched the spot, hoping it wasn't an indication that her period was about to start. She had been irregular for a few months. Stress did that. But she was supposed to meet Tommy tomorrow afternoon. It would be just her luck-"Boys, you're going to be late if you don't hurry up!"Right on cue, they came running down the stairs, their feet like a herd of elephants on the stairs. They paused in front of her, each dressed in a pair of shorts, each skidding across the foyer on the sleek plastic of their cleats. Justin's shin guards were almost too big for him, making

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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 39

    Emma slowed as she reached the dead end street where Tommy lived. She wasn't sure what she had expected to see. Nothing, really. She wanted it to look like it always had, a long, tree lined drive that ended in a single car garage. She wanted the house to be bright, for music to be playing low on the sound system. She wanted it to be like it had been the last time she was there.But as she slowly passed the few houses along the road, houses with cars parked out front, windows shuttered, she knew something was different. There were no visible cues, but there was a difference, just the same.And then she approached his drive.The gravel was different, rutted in a way it hadn't been before. There had been a lot of cars here.She pulled boldly into the driveway, no longer caring who might see her.And then she saw the crime scene tape.It felt as though someone had reached into her chest and ripped her heart out.She stopped not even halfway down the drive. It had rained last night.

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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 40

    "What are you doing here? How did you know I would be there?""I'm trying to help you, believe it or not."Alvarez studied her across the tight confines of her car. There was pity in his eyes. It made Emma's spine stiffen, made her push down the darkness that threatened to overwhelm her. She scrubbed at her tears again, rubbing so hard against her eyes that she saw stars for a brief moment."Someone knows about your affair with Thomas Morgan."The sound of his name made her bottom lip weaken for a moment. She looked out the window and took a deep breath. "No one knows," she said."Someone does." Alvarez pulled out his cellphone and pulled up something before handing it to her. Emma hesitated. She didn't want to talk to this man, didn't want to talk about Tommy to someone who hadn't known him. But he insisted, jabbing the phone in her direction. When she took it, she had to concentrate to make her eyes focus on the tiny print."Want a good story about Emma Hamilton?" a text mess

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    It was completely ridiculous, but the first thing Emma felt was relief."Murder?" she asked."He was found just like this," he said, gesturing with his phone. "Whoever this woman is, whoever put this rope around his throat, killed him."Emma touched the screen of his phone again and watched as it began to play. "Autoerotic-asphyxiation," she said.Alvarez nodded.She shook her head. "Take it back to the beginning."Alvarez rewound the video. As it began to play, Emma took it out of his hands and studied Tommy's face. "Is he drugged?" she finally asked.Alvarez leaned over so that he could see the screen, too. "Why?"She paused the video as the camera focused on his face. "He looks out of it. Like he just woke up."Alvarez nodded. "I noticed that, too.""But who takes a nap naked on the floor with the pillow under their knees instead of their head?""What are you thinking?""That he told me this was something he would never do."Alvarez turned to Emma. "You talked about thi

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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 42

    "What is that?""Where?""On the beam."He rolled over, looking up into the rafters of his house. "You can see that?"She laughed. "I have very good vision, I'll have you know.""You must." He laughed, too. "You're the first person to notice them."She moved into his arms. "Why do you have cameras on your beams?""It was part of a security system. But they've been modified.""Modified to do what?""To take video.""You take video of people in your bedroom?" She pulled away, pushing at the pillows as she moved into a sitting position. "You make sex films?""No, not really," he said, sitting up and trying to tug her into his arms. She moved away. "Emma," he said, reaching for her arm, but she slipped out of his reach.She walked through his house with her head rolled back on her spine, searching all the beams that crisscrossed his ceilings. She saw another, then another, still another. There were at least six, maybe seven."What are they for?"He was standing against the wa

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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 43

    The next few hours were teeny snapshots of activity: The paramedics asking her a million questions she couldn't answer.The sound of the jaws of life.The smell of garlic on the ER doc's breath.The chatter of voices around her.A cop leaning over her, asking her questions she struggled to understand.The sting of an IV needle piercing her arm.The banging sound of the MRI machine.The tug of stitches being placed on her head, across her ribs.When Emma was finally able to stay awake for longer than a few seconds at a time, she was in a hospital room, her jeans and tee replaced by a tacky, over-washed hospital gown."She's awake."Emma grunted, her throat too dry to make a sound. Jen was suddenly there, her face appearing over her like some sort of angel. An angel with a seriously broken halo."Hey, babe," she said, her voice soft. "How are you?""Sore," Emma whispered."Yeah, I'm not surprised. That tends to happen when you roll your car five times."Emma gestured towa

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  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 44

    When Emma next woke, Steve was sitting in a chair beside her bed."Hey," he said, leaning close and running a finger down the side of her face. "How do you feel?""Like I rolled my car a few times," she said.He smiled, but it wasn't one of those smiles that filled his eyes with that sparkle she had always associated with him, with the happier moments of their time together. It had been a long time since she had seen that.Emma's eyes filled with tears. She turned, stared up at the ceiling."Hey," he said again. He ran his hand over the curve of her jaw. "You're going to be okay.""No," she said, shaking her head, and then regretting it as pain burst through her forehead. "Nothing's ever going to be okay again.""Emma-" he picked up her hand and kissed her palm lightly. "Nothing is set in stone."She just shook her head again.The door opened a moment later. The doctor came in, all business, blustering through a quick exam. When he was done, he handed Steve some paperwork. "Yo

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    Emma handed Steve the lists she had made on the hotel stationary after they finished eating. The DVDs were back in their bag, waiting to be destroyed. That had been her promise to Tommy. If anything happened to him, she was to take the DVDs and destroy them. He had no desire to hurt anyone else.Steve just glanced at the lists at first, but when he began to recognize name after name, he slowed and began to read the lists again."You're kidding me, right?" he asked.Emma shook her head."Some of these people are worth billions. And he slept with all of them?"Emma paled slightly. She had been trying not to think about that aspect of the situation. "I don't know. I didn't watch any of them."He nodded absently, as though it didn't really matter. Finally, he put the lists down and sat back. "There are a lot of important people on those lists," he said after a moment's thought, "but I don't see a single one who might want to hurt us or hurt you specifically. Except for maybe the incu

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    Steve arranged it all.After arranging for a garage to pick up Steve's car and for a rental car, they picked up the boys and Emma's parents. They boarded a plane for Florida three hours later. Her mother was a little concerned by the rush, but was thrilled for the chance to get out of town. It had been such a long winter, she kept telling Emma on the ride to the airport. They would stay at a resort down there near Universal Studios in Orlando. The boys had wanted to go back there since a trip they made as a family two years ago. A trip Steve had abandoned them to when he was called back to his office three days early.Funny how she and the boys remembered that time so differently.Instead of driving home, Steve pointed the rental car toward downtown Fort Worth."We are we going?" Emma asked."A hotel."She turned in her seat. "Do you really think that's necessary?""Someone slashed the tires on my car, Emma. In the middle of downtown." He glanced at her. "Someone ran you off the

  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 50

    Emma slid the key into the small lock and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure it would open. He had told her it would, but some little piece of her was still uncertain about this, about all of it. What if he had lied to her?It did turn.Steve stood behind her close enough that she could feel the heat of his body. She had expected him to argue, to insist they drop the whole thing and go home, back to their broken lives. But he didn't say a word when she told him what she wanted to do. Simply drove them to the bank like it was something they did every day.She flipped the little door open and reached inside for the safety deposit box. Steve grabbed it as it began to fall into her hands, lifting it away from her and carrying it to the small table. She hobbled over, her ankle still causing her a great deal of pain. Her knee, too, had gotten stiff where the stitches pulled and tugged with every step. Between the two injuries, her sore ribs and constant headache, it was a miracle she was

  • The Fantasy Maker   Chapter 49

    They drove to the house together in Ray's Escalade. A police car sat in Tommy's front yard, the driver's side door open. Emma had a flash, imagined a large number of police cars sitting here, their lights flashing as the uniformed cops walked in and out of the house. She imagined a hearse, imagined them rolling a gurney out of the house with a big, black body bag lying on top.She shivered despite the warmth of the day.Ray climbed out of the car and went to speak to the cop. Steve glanced back at Emma from his place in the front passenger seat. "You don't have to go inside. You could just tell us what you need."Emma shook her head. "I have to do this."He looked at her for a long minute and then nodded, turning his attention to the windshield and the two men just a few feet in front of them.Emma looked out the window at the front door. Again she imagined him as he had been the last time she saw him. Monday morning. He stood on the little porch, his hand lifted in a gesture of f

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    "I talked to McWhorter, the contractor, this morning," Steve was saying around a bite of Danish. "He said that he turned in all the keys he and his men had.""Do you believe him?" Ray asked.Steve shook his head. "I keep the spare keys in a locked drawer in my office. There was one missing."Emma sipped at the hot vanilla latte the waitress had just brought her. "Who else has a key to our house?"Steve looked over at her, his eyes so dark from a restless night's sleep that they looked almost as bruised as hers. "Just your parents. And Liz."Emma's eyebrows rose. "Why would Liz have a spare key to our house?"He sat back, pushing his thumb into a corner of his Danish. "She ran by the house a few weeks ago to get some paperwork I had forgotten. You weren't there, so I had to give her my keys. I gave her a spare the next day in case it happened again."Emma glanced at Ray. He was watching the two of them like a child waiting for World War III to break out between his parents. She b

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