Free Private Sins (Three Rivers Series: Book 1) by Brenda Barrett Page B

forced a smile. At least Valda hadn’t noticed anything unique about the Donahue children.
    She breathed a sigh of relief but quickly came on edge again when Mark began to cry.
    “I'll take him to the mother's room,” Valda said, and got up before Kelly could say that she would do it.
    Kelly watched as Camille, Chris' favorite and closest sister, got up to follow her. Where is she going? Kelly thought in a panic, she hoped it was not to examine her baby more closely.
    The agony of it all hit her and she didn’t realize that she missed the whole children's song until the church said Amen, snapping her out of her feverish imaginings and self-agonizing.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    The sermon was a very well researched one based on covetousness. Usually when her husband preached Kelly would be very alert and listened carefully to what he said. Theo outlined the meaning of covetousness, which is an extreme desire to acquire or possess, wanting what others had and not being content with your own.
    He used a projector for his sermons to emphasize his points. He frequently glanced at Kelly, who had now schooled her features into a parody of contentment. She wished she could see her own expression to see if she was properly imitating contentment, because she was as far from content as anyone could be.
    Her mind was in the mother's room. Neither Camille nor Valda had returned and she was getting anxious as each second ticked by. She couldn’t take it any longer and she got up to go see what was keeping her mother-in-law.
    She entered the room at the front of the church—to the right of the foyer—and pushed the door.
    Valda was seated in one of the padded chairs and was watching the sermon intently and Camille was holding her baby.
    Kelly felt the building spin a little and she slumped onto a nearby chair, dazed. The mother's room was empty but for the three adults.
    “Oh there you are,” Valda said, smiling. “I could not get him to calm down,” she pointed to the baby. “So Camille here volunteered. It seems to have worked.”
    Kelly nodded trying hard not to look directly on Camille. “You can go back into church now Valda, I'll stay with him.”
    “Okay, if you are sure,” Valda said. “You don’t look so well.”
    “I am fine,” Kelly went over to Camille, “just a bad headache coming on.”
    “Then maybe you should just let me baby-sit a while then,” Camille said gazing at Kelly intently.
    “Okay, I'll sit here but you go on in, Valda.”
    Valda smiled and left the mother's room.
    The only sounds that could be heard were the cooing of the baby and the sermon coming from the television.
    Kelly avoided Camille's eyes and at first Camille did not say a word.
    “How are you getting away with this?” Camille calmly asked after placing the now sleeping baby in the bassinet that Kelly had placed in the mother's room in anticipation of going there for solitude.
    Kelly looked at Camille and shrugged, “what on earth are you talking about?”
    Camille half-smiled, “your husband must be blind.”
    Kelly stiffened. “Please stop, this is none of your business.”
    “My brother, my business. My nephew, my business.”
    “What's the matter with you people,” Kelly got up, “first your mother, now you. That baby belongs to me and my husband. I should not have to be defending that.”
    “No you shouldn’t,” Camille said quietly, “but you and Chris had that little affair and now here you are defending yourself to me. You know we discussed this last Sunday and he never brought up the fact that he got you pregnant. But Marie, Fiona and I took one look at the baby and knew we were related to him.”
    “Leave it alone,” Kelly sat back down and closed her eyes, “I am handling this the best way I know how.”
    “No, you are not. You have my brother hiding away from this church that he has served for years. You have taken his only child and given it to another man. You are selfish.”
    Kelly widened her eyes, her