Free Keeping Secrets & Telling Lies by Trice Hickman Page A

face.
    â€œHi, Mommy!” Alexandria yelled out. “Look what I made.” She grinned and ran up to Victoria, handing her a brightly colored sheet of paper.
    Victoria looked at the picture that her daughter had drawn. It wasn’t a rendition of the stick figures that Alexandria normally drew. She’d crafted lifelike images of a father, mother, and child. There was even a dog to complete the happy family.
    â€œSee, Mommy,” she said, smiling. “That’s Daddy and you and me and our dog!”
    â€œSweetie, we don’t have a dog.”
    â€œI know, but can we get one? Please? ”
    Victoria didn’t want a dog, and thankfully, Ted had been in agreement about not having any pets. Not even goldfish. But apparently, Alexandria had her mind set on adding another member to their family.
    â€œPlease, Mommy! PJ has a dog, and I want one, too!”
    Victoria blinked her eyes. Damn! “We’ll talk about it later, okay?” she said, helping Alexandria gather her things. She tried to remain calm, but right then and there she knew that Parker Brightwood was going to be a serious issue, no matter how she couched it to Ted.
    Alexandria was disappointed but didn’t drop her smile. “Okay. Can I get a Happy Meal?”
    As Victoria pulled away from the McDonald’s drive-thru window, she listened while Alexandria recapped her fun-filled day at camp, going on and on with the exuberance of someone who didn’t have a worry in the world. Her daughter’s bright spirit was the light she needed, because she knew there were going to be rough patches ahead.
    Face the Grim Situation....
    Ted’s afternoon had gone from bad to worse in the span of just a few short minutes. His meeting with the accounting department had been laborious, and his teleconference with the remote location supply-chain directors and managers that followed hadn’t been any better. But little did he know that those meetings would prove to be the highlight of his workday after hearing from his sister.
    Even though all he wanted to do was grieve after learning the news about his mother’s condition, he knew there was no time for that, at least not at the moment. He picked up the phone and instructed his assistant, Jen, to make arrangements for an early morning flight to Boston. After that task was handled, he dialed Victoria to let her know about his mother’s fatal condition. It gave him comfort when he heard the care and concern in his wife’s voice, and even though Victoria and his mother had never been close, he was thankful for the fact that they’d always been civil toward each other.
    After he finished his laundry list of phone calls and sent out a few e-mails,Ted walked over to the minibar on the other side of his large corner office. He was about to break one of his long-standing rules: drinking alcohol during business hours. He poured himself a gin and tonic, then walked back over to his desk and sank into his leather chair. He swished two ice cubes around in his mouth, letting the cold liquid drizzle down the back of his throat. The drink felt good and served as a temporary elixir from the news his sister, Lilly, had just delivered.
    He’d learned that his mother was in the hospital, and from what Lilly had told him, she wasn’t going to make it out. Ted knew that his mother had been feeling poorly for several months, but each time they’d spoken, she avoided giving him a straight answer about the full extent of her health. He had suspected that it was worse than she let on, but he also knew how private his mother was, so he’d resisted the urge to push her.
    Carolyn Thornton had always been secretive with information about herself, and anyone else, for that matter. She never gossiped, an astonishing feat for a woman of her age and social status. Carolyn was tight lipped about nearly every aspect of her life. It was an inherited trait that Ted had observed as a