Page 65 of His Wounded Heart

“You’re missing the rhythm. It’s got to sound almost musical.”

I smile. “Listen to you, Trenda. Even with the shit start in life, and this supposed big ugly secret, you are one of the loveliest women I’ve ever met.”

She looks down at her plate, totally shutting me out. I put my hand to her cheek and gently guide her face so she’s looking at me again. As she looks up, her brown eyes are confused.

“You’re not supposed to say something like that.”

“Sure I am. I tell the truth, remember? Remember in the truck when I yelled at you?”

She nods.

“You’d told me that you have a phobia when men yell at you. Has someone hurt you in the past?”

“Well, sure, someone has hurt me. Nobody goes through life without getting hurt.”

I don’t respond. I sit there, waiting for her. At last, the silence gets to her.

“Norville liked to beat on people smaller than him. God forbid he get in a fight with someone his own size. He might actually get hurt.”

I look at her. My gut tells me there’s more. I push a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Ah, Trenda, I hope you know you can trust me.”

Her laugh is weary. “I hope I can. I mean, I think I can. I’ve been holding this in so long that it’s corroding my soul.”

Corroding her soul?

I can’t stop myself. I reach out and pull her into my arms. It’s not as good as it was when she was lying on top of me at my cabin, but it’s close. I feel her breath at my neck and press my lips on top of her sweet-smelling hair.

“Let it out, Honey.”

“I thought he loved me.” I can barely hear her. “I was so dumb, I’d just turned nineteen, and here I was living with a fifty-four-year-old man in his high-rise condominium, not meeting any of his friends, cooking his meals, thinking he’s going to pro-pro-propose.”

I want to break something. She was just a baby, and some man, three times her age, was defiling her?! It makes me sick just thinking about it.

“How stupid was I? Right?”

“Not stupid.”

“It gets worse. He was my first.” She pushes back from my shoulder, her shiny brown eyes look up at me. “Do you know what I mean?”

“You were a virgin.”

She nods. “After watching my mom, I had planned to wait until I was married. Mr. Fortnum had got me the job at the real estate company in Nashville. Brantley was their biggest customer, and he kept asking me out. He sent me flowers. Then he got me signed sheet music from Miss Dolly Parton for the song “Jolene.” He really knew me. So, I finally went out with him. He had a limousine.”

Jesus.

“He kept wanting to sleep with me, but I said no. Then he gave me a promise ring, and asked me to move in with him. Again, how stupid was I?”

“Baby, you weren’t.” I press her face against my chest. She’s not crying, but she looks shell-shocked.

“We’d been living together for four months. He was acting strange, so I knew he was getting ready to propose, and the next day was the day his wife showed up.”

Trenda’s voice was almost robotic as she tells me about Brantley’s wife, and the cruel things she’d said to Trenda. How can one woman be so heartless to another?

“It was like she’d poured a bucket of cold water over me, and I woke up from a dream world. I realized what was going on around me, and I realized what was going on with me. My period was late. That was part of what I had not been paying too much attention to. Why bother, because Brantley and I were going to get married, right?”

“Right, Baby.” I kiss the top of her head, and stroke her back, willing her to tell me more of the big ugly. Now I know this is going to be truly horrific.

“As soon as his wife leaves, I run to the bathroom, I’m lucky I made it to the toilet, and I puke my guts out. Yet another symptom that I’d been ignoring. That afternoon Brantley calls and says he has to go out of town and won’t be back til the next day. I go buy a pregnancy test. Not that I need it. I’d been around Wanda long enough to see what happens when you’re pregnant. Of course I was.”