Free Guilt by Association by Susan R. Sloan Page B

We’re respected members of the community. There’s never been a hint of scandal in our family. Think what it would do to your father’s practice if this ever came out.”
    “Now, Mother.” Leo spoke up for the first time.
    “And think of your sister,” Beverly went on, as though he hadn’t. “If you go around broadcasting all the ugly facts, people might start asking what you had in mind when you wentstrolling in Central Park in the middle of the night with a young man you hardly knew.”
    “But the people here know there wasn’t any automobile accident,” Karen argued, wondering dimly what this had to do with sixteen-year-old Laura.
    “Maybe they do and maybe they don’t,” Beverly declared. “Besides, hospital records can be sealed or something, and then we can do whatever’s necessary to prevent anyone else from finding out.”
    “What about Peter?”
    “The time for worrying about Peter was before you went walking in Central Park, I should think,” her mother replied tartly.
     “But of course we’ll have to tell him the same thing as everyone else.”
    “I can’t lie to him,” Karen objected.
    “Of course you can,” Beverly snapped. “What chance do you think you’ll have to make a decent marriage, to him or to anyone else, if you repeat this dreadful story? Do you really want to ruin the rest of your life? Because that’s exactly what will happen if you ever tell anybody what you told us.”
    Karen’s head was throbbing and she began to pray for the oblivion that had always come to ease her pain to come now and swallow her up forever.
    “It’s not fair,” she said.
    “Fair?” her mother pounced. “You think it would be fair to stand up and tell the whole world what you did?”
    “What
I
did?” Karen echoed. “You mean, what
he
did, don’t you?”
    “Whatever,” Beverly replied, picking the piece of lint off her jacket.
    “You’re my parents,” Karen whispered. “You’re supposed to love me. I thought you’d be on
my
side.”
    “Of course we love you,” said Beverly. “Of course we’re on your side. That’s why we’re willing to go to such lengths to protect you.”
    “No,” Karen accused. “You think this was all my fault. You don’t think he ought to be punished—you think
I
should. You think I flirted with him and teased him and then enticed himinto the park. You think I asked him to do this to me, don’t you?”
    “I don’t think anything of the kind,” Beverly retorted. “I think there was probably a terrible misunderstanding somewhere along the way and he took advantage of you. Maybe he should be punished for that, but not at the expense of this fam-ily’s reputation.”
    Suddenly Karen couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Her right leg was in spasm, her face turned beet-red, her whole body began to heave, and she was clawing at the wires that fastened her jaw.
    “Oh my God, what’s wrong?” Beverly shrieked.
    Leo sprang up and grabbed for his daughter’s hand before she could do any serious damage to herself. “Get a nurse in here,”
     he told his wife.
    Beverly rushed for the door. “She can’t breathe,” she shouted into the corridor. “Do something.”
    Rose Thackery came running. After one look she turned on her heel, returning seconds later with a hypodermic. She hurried to the bed, almost knocking Leo aside.
    “Karen,” she said firmly, “calm down now. You’re having a little anxiety attack, that’s all. It’s nothing to worry about.”
    She stuck the needle deep into Karen’s hip. Then she took hold of her patient’s hand. “Listen to me,” she said soothingly.
     “You’re all right. You’re safe. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”
    Karen stared at the kind face through the flood of gasps and tears—a face that had always meant comfort and acceptance and good humor, and heard the soft words that had never been anything but supportive.
    The panic began to subside.
    “Just take a nice deep breath,” the nurse