Free The Weight of Shadows by Alison Strobel Page A

Kim didn’t want to make him mad. Resigning herself to the path she was taking, she stayed up late to wait for her roommate to get home so she could talk to her about moving out.
    “Do you have a minute?” she asked Corrie when she finally walked in.
    “Sure, as long as you don’t mind if I eat. I’m starving. What’s up?”
    Kim followed her to the kitchen and leaned against the counter. “I know my lease isn’t up for another three months, but I wanted to see if it would be alright with you if I moved out early.”
    Corrie turned from the fridge with a look of surprise. “You’re moving out? Where to?”
    “I’m moving in with Rick.”
    Corrie’s eyebrows arched. “Really? Wow.”
    Kim chuckled. “Yeah.”
    “You guys have only been dating for, like—”
    “Three months.”
    “And you’re moving in together now. That seems really…fast.”
    Kim bristled inside but tried not to show it. “Well, when you know, you know, right?”
    Corrie shrugged slightly and turned back to the open fridge. “Can’t argue with that.” She pulled leftovers from a shelf and said, “Adam asked the other day if I knew how it was going with you two. He seemed…concerned.”
    “Adam—the guy Rick works with? Why would he be concerned?”
    “I don’t know. He mentioned something about Rick’s last girlfriend, and how things got pretty crazy at the end, or something like that.”
    Kim huffed. “His ex was a drama queen.”
    “You met her?”
    “No, Rick told me about her and their relationship. She dumped him.”
    Corrie nodded. “Ah.”
    This conversation was not going at all like she’d hoped it would. “I don’t think Rick and Adam are very close friends. I wouldn’t trust his view of things.” She stood a little straighter. “Besides, Rick and I have a lot more in common than he did with his old girlfriend. We understand each other a lot better.”
    Corrie seemed to consider this, then shrugged. “Well, good luck then. Why don’t you give me rent for next month and we’ll call it even.”
    “Sounds fair. Thanks for letting me out of the lease early.”
    “No problem. When do you think you’ll move?”
    “Probably Sunday, since the salon is closed.”
    “Okay. Hand me that towel, would you?” Kim pulled the towel from the drawer’s handle and held it out to Corrie, who frowned as she looked at Kim’s arm. “There’s something on your sleeve. A stain or something.” She leaned over and pointed to the long white sleeve where a small dark red spot had formed.
    Kim gasped, covering the spot with her hand. “I had a—a bandage on, it must have come off.” Trying not to look panicked, she pushed away from the counter and headed for her room.
    “What did you do?” Corrie called. “That’s a weird place to get hurt.”
    Kim pulled up her sleeve in the safety of her room. “Yeah, it was…at work today. Collided with the receptionist. She had a—a box cutter, after opening a shipment of product.” The lie coalesced from her racing thoughts and she tried to pass her demeanor off as irritated rather than alarmed. She muttered—loudly, so Corrie would hear her—about hoping she hadn’t ruined her work shirt, then shut the door and stripped off the shirt to examine the wound where she’d cut herself an hour earlier.
    The bandage hadn’t come off—it was just too small. Blood had oozed from beyond the gauze. She grabbed another bandage from the box she’d bought and put it in place of the first, though it didn’t appear to be bleeding anymore.
    More guilt and shame compounded the guilt and shame she lived with all the time. What if Corrie had caught her? What if it had been Rick who had seen it? But she knew she couldn’t stop. Not yet. For now, the relief she gained from each slice outweighed the risks.
    She just had to be more careful.

SEVEN
    Joshua stepped into the kitchen just in time to hear the phone ring. It was his realtor, Scott, with news of an offer on the house. Joshua knew