Edge of Shadows (Shadows #1) Read Online Free Page B

ringing, and a glance at the clock told her it was three a.m. She tried not to be suspicious, but she believed in the old saying that nothing good ever came from calls at three a.m. Ellie felt an old memory trying to surface, but she pushed it away. She fumbled for the receiver.
    “Hello?” It sounded like her throat was stuffed with cotton.
    “At your best, you were a sorry excuse for a wife.”
    Ellie shot up fully awake, her heart racing. She heard the yelp from Skipper. She had shoved him off the bed. She forced her voice to be calm. ”Jake, you can’t call me at three a.m.”
    “I can call you whenever the hell I want. You are my wife.”
    Now Ellie’s brain cells were alive and firing. She sensed the undercurrent of alcohol in Jake’s voice. After eight years of marriage, she knew his nuances and moods perhaps better than he did himself. And the three sentences so far indicated Jake was drunk and angry. If she could see him, she had no doubt that his aura was a deep purple red.
    “Ex-wife, Jake. I’m going to hang up the phone now.” Ellie had no desire to hear what other insults Jake had in store for her.
    After the divorce was final six months ago, she heard from some acquaintances that he was trying to drink every drop of liquor in the state. She felt a small bit of elation at the thought that she didn’t have to deal with this now. She no longer had to worry about the consequences of leaving him alone in his angry squalor and what he would do to himself. From past experience, she also knew that whenever Jake stopped drinking and came to his senses, she’d get a pitiful “I’m sorry” phone call. She didn’t have to deal with that either anymore.
    “You bit—” she heard him sputter as she dropped the phone back into the cradle. It immediately started to ring again, but this time she ignored it. After five rings it went to voicemail. Then it rang again. She reached behind the dresser next to her bed and pulled the cord out of the wall jack and was blessed with silence. Skipper paced the floor, watching her wearily.
    “Sorry, boy,” she said softly. “C’mon.” She patted the bed next to her, and Skipper was up within moments. He dug around in the comforter at the foot of the bed until he had created a little nest and then curled up again. Ellie envied him.
    Ellie lay back in bed and stared at the ceiling. She wanted to go back to that romantic dream with the mystery man, but she knew there would be no more sleep for her tonight. She had to stay alert, just in case Jake decided that it was worth the thirty-mile trip to her doorstep to harass her. She didn’t think he would now, but the first month after the separation had been a bit harrowing.
    Jake would camp outside her building and yell up at her window trying to get her to come down and talk to him. The landlord called the police when Jake threw a rock and broke a window. Jake’s apology had been pitiful and he had looked so lost that she hadn’t had the heart to press charges.
    Then he brought her the divorce papers and the calls and visits stopped. She hadn’t heard from him in months, and she thought the late-night tirades were over for good.
    After tossing and turning until five a.m., she decided it was a better use of her time to get up and get on with her day. She felt miserable, but she was used to it. She rolled onto her side and stared out the window at the gray autumn morning. The leaves were just starting to fall off the trees, and the sun was coming out later in the morning. But in the end it was just another day with the same old routine. What was the point of being special if it meant being alone and depressed for the rest of her life?
    Ellie turned her head and looked at the clock one more time. It was five-fifteen a.m. She wasn’t due at the coffee shop until later, but she could go in early and get some work done. That’s all she ever did anymore: work. She heard Skipper shuffling around at the foot of the bed.