Edge of Midnight Read Online Free Page A

ready to run. She wouldn’t let him take away the books.
    Carrying an armload, she stumbled fast down the stairs, staggered and fell. Books tumbled, her bag went flying, and the contents scattered.
    â€œCary? You okay?” Arlette crouched beside her, put a hand on her shoulder, and bent down to look directly into her face.
    â€œTold you I was clumsy.” Hands over her face, Cary started crying again, hard enough that people stared at her.
    â€œCome on. My car’s right here.” Arm around her shoulder, Arlette nudged Cary toward the car and tossed the books in the rear.
    Cary slid in, a puddle of embarrassment with tears running down her face. Arlette ripped tissues from a box on the console between the seats and offered her a handful. Cary pressed one against her eyes, then blew her nose.
    â€œI don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She crushed the soggy tissue in her fist.
    â€œIt’s not hard to figure out, babe. Your husband beats the crap out of you. That’s enough to make anybody cry.” Arlette drove to the Donut Shop, parked in front, and herded Cary inside to a small, round table in the rear.
    â€œSit,” Arlette said. “I’ll get coffee.”
    She came back minutes later with two tall lattes, handed one to Cary, and sat down across from her. “You have to report him, Cary. If you don’t he’s going to seriously injure you.”
    â€œIt gets harder and harder. He’s taking that away, too. You’re right, Arlette, he’ll just keep beating me. I’m leaving him.”
    â€œGood. I’m glad. What gets harder and harder? The thought of leaving?”
    Cary nodded, her head bobbing up and down like a tulip in a strong wind. “Worse.” The word came out on a hiccup.
    â€œWhat’s worse?”
    â€œNot being able to read.” Even more horrible than her believing his lies about how he loved her and it would never happen again. “If I can’t read I have nothing.” Cary told Arlette about her sight and about wondering if Mitch had injured some nerves when he’d hit her in the face. “He hardly ever does, because bruises on my face would show, but sometimes he just gets so mad.”
    â€œOh, Cary.” Arlette took her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
    â€œI just kept hoping it would get better.”
    â€œYou have to get help. Call one of those numbers I gave you and get into a shelter.”
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œYes, you can. I’ll go with you if you like.”
    Cary looked at her. “Arlette … he’s a cop. You think a cop can’t get the address of shelters?”
    â€œIf you don’t leave him, he’ll end up killing you.”
    â€œHe’ll kill me if I leave.”
    Arlette took in a long breath, which meant she wanted to scream or shake Cary for being so stubborn, but Cary knew Mitch. He’d find some way to get the information he needed.
    â€œI know I have to leave him,” she whispered. Just saying the words out loud made her heart flutter like crazy. As though he were all-powerful and could hear any hint of defection.
    Arlette took a sip of coffee, probably to cover her surprise that Cary was finally wising up. “You have to do it soon.”
    Cary looked down in her lap, at her fingers twisted together. That’s the way they were, she and Mitch, twisted together somehow.
    Arlette took in a long breath and let it out slowly. “All right, I know someone who might help. And you need to see an ophthalmologist. Immediately. Maybe you should be taking antibiotics or eyedrops or something.”
    *   *   *
    Arlette took her to the doctor’s office and sat in the waiting room while she went in to see him. When Cary came out, she didn’t say anything. Not while they walked to the parking garage, not when they got in the car, not when Arlette drove them to Hs Lordship’s