Free Star by V. C. Andrews Page B

asked.
"The two of them looked at each other and laughed as if I had asked the silliest question.
" `Momma?'
"'Cause Aaron and I just got married,' she said. "Naturally, I grimaced and shook my head.
" 'You can't marry Aaron, Momma. You're already married,' I told her.
"The smile flew off her face like a frightened sparrow and she slammed her glass down on the counter so hard, it almost shattered.
"'A man just walks out of here one day and never calls,' she said pointing at the door, 'never comes back, never sends a note, and goes off with another woman and I'm still supposed to be married to him' No ma'am, I'm not.'
"'Don't you have to go to a court, though?' I asked.
"'Courts mean lawyers and lawyers are just crooks who hang out a shingle off their doors,' she said. 'Aaron and I talked it over and I declared, officially declared that is,' she added pulling up her shoulders and standing as straight as she could, 'that I ain't married to Kenny Fisher no more. I declared it this afternoon and then we went over to Preacher Longstreet down in South Central and he married us right and proper with a Bible and all. I even got a ring,' she bragged and stuck out her hand. It didn't look like much of a ring, but I didn't say so.
"'Don't you have to get a license and stuff?' I asked.
"'Will you stop with all those questions. Just say hello to your new daddy,' she ordered.
"I turned back to the potatoes.
"'Star, you hear me? You show your new daddy respect, hear?'
"'He's not my daddy,' I said.
"'What? What did you say?'
"She started for me, but Aaron held her back.
"'Hold on now, Aretha,' he said. 'We don't want any unpleasantries tonight on our wedding night. Our honeymoon,' he added and she stopped fighting him and smiled.
"'You're right, Aaron.' She looked at me, her eyes shooting darts across the kitchen. 'We'll talk about this later. Aaron and I are going out for a celebration dinner. I just want to freshen up a bit,' she said and went to the bathroom.
"I continued to work on Rodney's dinner and he held on to me the whole time. It was difficult to breathe, not to be drowned by everything that was happening so fast.
"'That boy looks like a sissy holding on to you like that,' Aaron said. A terrible anger washed over me. I felt the heat rise into my face.
"I turned and glared at him, gave him my coldest look and said, 'He'll grow up to be easily twice the man you are, not that it would be hard to do.'
"He stared at me for a moment and I saw rage start to build in his eyes, but suddenly he stopped it as if he knew he might lose control of himself if he didn't. He laughed, but it was one of those soft, unsure laughs, a laugh to cover up his own discomfort.
"I didn't stop glaring at him and he pointed his thick, crooked right forefinger at me.
"'Your momma's right about you. You're too sassy. We'll deal with it later,' he said and went to the bedroom to start unpacking and moving in."
I paused and looked at the other girls. Each in her eyes showed she understood what a low moment that was for me and my little brother. I didn't even have to ask, but I did.
"How would you like that to happen to you?"
Doctor Marlowe's face brightened with interest and excitement as she looked at them and waited.
"They make decisions about our lives as if we were nothing more than ornaments on Christmas trees," Jade said, her eyes darkening as she fixed on her own thoughts.
"My daddy never even told me he was seeing someone else, much less look for my opinion about it," Misty said.
Cat remained quiet, but her eyes filled with a cold look of fear that made me wonder again how different her life had been and what troubles she had seen, troubles so bad they had stolen her voice and her smile.
"Yeah, well despite what Aaron and Momma threatened, Momma didn't say anything more about it to me that night. She and Aaron went to their celebration and came home very late. Their door was closed when I got up the next morning. Rodney and I had our breakfast and left