Temptation. Sherryl Woods

had never wanted to set foot in a city he claimed was so filled with evil and she’d never been brave enough to cross him. Besides, she’d always feared that coming back to New York would remind her of all she had given up so many years ago. Her regrets ran deep enough as it was.

      “I’m tired,” she said because she couldn’t bear to force more lies from Callie’s lips. “I think I’d like to rest for a bit.”

      “Don’t you even want to take a look around the apartment?” Callie asked.

      “Maybe later,” she said wearily, ignoring the vague note of hurt in her daughter’s voice. Maybe later she wouldn’t feel this deep resentment at having been shuffled off like an unwanted piece of furniture.

      Callie nodded, then led the way to the guest room. She had a sympathetic expression on her face, as if she could read her mother’s mind.

      Maybe she could, Regina thought as she slid between the cool, expensive sheets on the antique brass bed just like the one in Callie’s room back home. She turned her face toward the wall to avoid meeting her daughter’s eyes. After all, they’d both been trapped by Eunice and her selfish, controlling ways.

      * * *

      “How could you?” Callie demanded in a hushed, furious voice the minute she got through to her sister. “Why didn’t you warn me she was coming? She was sitting out here in the hallway all alone like some poor, homeless woman. It was awful, to say nothing of dangerous. What if she’d gotten lost coming from the airport? Or hadn’t had enough money for the cab? If she can’t cope in Iowa, how did you think she’d manage here?”

      “I told you I was putting her on a flight to New York unless you came up with a better solution,” Eunice reminded her, her tone self-righteous. “I gave you until the weekend.”

      “You still could have let me know she was on the way.”

      “So you could have tried to buy more time with promises you never intended to keep?”

      “So I could have met her at the airport or at least been here to welcome her.”

      “Yeah, right,” Eunice said sarcastically. “Let’s not kid ourselves. You’re not mad because I didn’t tell you. You’re mad because she’s there.”

      Callie clung to her patience by a thread. “Maybe so,” she admitted honestly. “It’s not the best time for me, but I wouldn’t have let her see it. She’s our mother, for goodness’ sake, not a shipment of corn.”

      “I’m surprised you’re aware of the distinction, for all the effort you’ve put into her care.”

      “God, Eunice, you are such a selfish pig,” Callie muttered, and slammed the phone down before she really got angry. Maybe in her own way, she was just as selfish, she admitted to herself, but she wasn’t cruel. That was the real difference between her and her sister.

      As her mother slept—or hid out in her room, which is what Callie suspected she was doing—Callie considered her options. Her bank account, healthy enough when she’d first lost her job, was dwindling. There were no alimony payments. Pride had kept her from accepting one thin dime of Chad’s guilt money. She wasn’t in any immediate danger of starvation, even with another mouth to feed. But she could no longer be quite as cavalier about her joblessness.

      Then she considered the size of the salary in that contract Jason had been waving under her nose. It was on a par with what she’d been earning on Wall Street and then some. Temptation whispered through her. If she accepted the offer, there would be enough money to send her mother back home and hire help for her, if that was what her mother wanted.

      In addition, Terry’s job would be safe, as well as the jobs of all those other cast and crew members Jason was threatening with unemployment. She wasn’t entirely sure how seriously to take his remarks about canceling the soap, but it had been evident to her earlier that Terry was taking him seriously.