“Yes, I did.” She wiped her eyes.
“Sara, I have more to tell you.”
She saw the seriousness on his face. “This is the part about Greg?”
“Yes. He’s Mitzi Vandlo’s son.”
For a moment Sara’s head seemed to reel. “The son of the criminal? The one so many people are searching for?” Her voice was rising. “Did he … Do you think Greg … that Greg murdered Brian to get to me?”
Mike took Sara’s hand and held it firmly in his own. “Sara, you must stay calm. You can’t panic.”
“My second boyfriend probably killed my first boyfriend and you want me to be calm?”
“Yes,” Mike said firmly.
Sara jerked her hand from his and stood up. “That bastard! Do you have any idea how much I put up with from him? He flirted with every woman who had a dollar in her hand. Platinum American Express cards nearly gave him an orgasm.”
Mike had to bite his lips to keep from smiling, and the dimple in his cheek was an inch deep.
“One time a woman had one of those black AmEx cards, and I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance.” She glared at Mike. “And you know why I put up with his crap?”
“I truly have no idea.”
“That’s because you have never been thrown onto the rubbish heap by anyone.”
“Well, actually—”
“Women going to jail don’t count. But I was dropped flat by a man I genuinely loved. I had saved myself all through high school. Boys were groping me, sweaty hands were all over me, but I
held out for ‘true love.’”
Mike watched her as she paced the room, her anger making her face bright—and he was glad of it. Anger was easier to cope with than grief.
Suddenly, her anger left her and she sat down hard on Tess’s armchair. “Brian, Brian, Brian,” she whispered. “Why didn’t I believe in you more?”
For a moment she put her hands over her face, and even though Mike saw her shoulders heaving as she cried, he didn’t go to her. He had more to tell her, and he was dreading doing so.
She looked back at him. “It was that movie, the one with Meg Ryan making a fool of herself.”
He looked at her blankly.
“When Meg Ryan’s fiancé dropped her, she ran after him to France and made a laughingstock of herself. After I received that hideous letter from Brian telling me he was going to marry someone else, I decided I had more pride than that. I wasn’t going after him. And I wouldn’t let him and his family see how much I’d been hurt. It was bad enough being the pathetic loser here in Edilean, but to go to another country …”
She looked back at Mike. “If only I had gone. If only—”
“You can’t do that,” Mike said sternly. “You can’t even think of blaming yourself. You’re innocent in all this.”
Sara fell back in the chair, her hands gripping the arms. “You have something else to tell me, don’t you?”
“Yes, but …”
“It couldn’t be worse than what you’ve already said.”
“Depends on how you look at it.”
She waited, but he said nothing. “Mike?”
“Yeah, okay, I’m getting around to it. Just give me time.” He took a breath. “Look, Sara, what I’d like to do is send you into hiding, but I can’t do that. You’re at the center of whatever the Vandlos want. We think Stefan—”