Free The Third Sin by Elsa Klensch Page A

about some of the crazy stunts they’ve pulled.”
    Sonya’s interest started to grow. “They’re friends?”
    â€œMom says more than friends.”
    â€œYou mean they were lovers? Surely not. They’ve both married.”
    Sonya knew she was naïve; growing up in Minnesota she never got used to complicated relationships that were so common in Manhattan.
    â€œWhat does that matter?” Kirsten made a grimace. “And remember, Wade wasn’t always obese with apnea.”
    Sonya wasn’t surprised to hear that Wade had sleep apnea, given his weight and age. She’d seen enough articles to know that it was a potentially serious medical condition that could cause a person’s breathing to be irregular while they were sleeping. Some people even stopped breathing entirely.
    â€œDoes he need oxygen when he sleeps?”
    â€œYes. He sleeps with a mask and a machine. Otherwise he snores all the time and could even die. But he wasn’t always like this. When Mom married Harold, Wade was best man and the best-looking guy there. You should see the photos. I bet my dad fell for him then.”
    This was the first confirmation Sonya had that Wade was bisexual. She said casually, “It must have made for an interesting mix in the family.”
    Kirsten laughed. “It still does. Of course, we weren’t all living together then. Mom, Harold, and I had an apartment on the West Side. It was easy for Dad to stay with Wade when he came to town. He did for years, until Bella moved in.”
    â€œDo Wade and Bella have separate rooms?”
    â€œSure, Bella says she can’t sleep with the constant buzz of Wade’s apnea machine. Wade says he can’t sleep without it. Even with it he only gets three or four hours a night.”
    â€œSo you and Wade are friends?”
    â€œHe’s always been like an uncle to me. Dad and Uncle Wade used to take me shopping when I was kid. I had a lot of fun with them. Mom said they spoiled me, but Wade used to reply that was what uncles were for.”
    Sonya thought of her own childhood, growing up without a father. Her mother had had to count every cent. Shopping had never been a pleasure. It was always about finding the cheapest thing.
    The music swelled as two muscular men came out and started ripping off the tape that sealed the plastic sheeting that protected the runway. The fashionistas hurried to their seats, the lights dimmed, and with a burst of music the first model appeared.

 
    Chapter 10
    F RIDAY, 2:00 A.M.
    Wade’s apartment
    Cacao was dead.
    The macaw’s body lay in the bottom of the cage, a rigid mass of feathers.
    Bella felt herself swaying as if she were going to fall. She had come into the bedroom and seen that the cover on the cage had slipped. When she’d reached the cage, she’d seen the body, with its bright feathers and black beak, frozen in place. She stared and swallowed hard, fighting the nausea that swept over her. She should not have drunk so much whiskey.
    From the first day she’d seen it, everything about Cacao had repulsed her. She had wished it dead a thousand times.
    Its high-pitched squawking could be heard in every room. The phrases that Wade taught it were rude and embarrassing. Then there was the sour smell that reached into each corner of the dark apartment, permeating the freshly laundered sheets and towels. Even after a shower she felt unclean, as unclean as she did each time Wade touched her. At the thought of his clammy hands reaching out for her, acid rose and burned her throat.
    She stared through her tears at its vivid plumage. She should have loved the bird; after all, Cacao had apparently loved her. He had often tried to climb onto her shoulder or to elicit affection from her. Why did she hate it? In a surge of drunken guilt and self-pity, she told herself the bird had been her only friend in this ugly family.
    She couldn’t bear to look at it any longer.