Prey of Desire by J. C. Gatlin Page A

was the best time
of her life. They had fun. They made love. And they made plans for the future.
But the end of summer brought devastating news: a routine X-ray showed a
suspicious shadow on her mother’s left breast.
    It was
nothing, Kim was told. The doctors were being overly cautious. And the way her
mother worked out, took care of herself and ate properly, it had to be nothing.
It certainly couldn’t be cancer…
    But
it  was  cancer. And her mother grew seriously ill.
    Kimberly
and her father focused on her mother's health and comfort. It consumed Kim’s
attention and Ross couldn’t handle it. He moved on to another girl with more
time on her hands and less drama in her life. Kim didn’t care. She didn’t have
time to care. She wasn’t going to let cancer take her mother…
    But it
did, in the space of a few months.
    Nor did
it stop there. As the disease ate her mother from the
inside out, it also ate away at her father’s soul. He was no longer the
headstrong family man who built furniture and bird houses in the garage, loved
the Florida Gators, pre-dawn fishing trips and his wife and daughter.
    When the agent for the insurance company came knocking on
their door, her father refused to speak with him. He didn't want to talk about final benefits and told the
man to get out of his house.
    The agent
was understandably surprised, and he left the check on the kitchen table. It
sat there long after the man left, and for days until Kim couldn't stand it any
longer.
    She
pleaded with her father to get help and dragged him to grief counseling.
Together, they talked to a patient, understanding psychiatrist named Natalie,
who was a widow herself. She had the brightest blue eyes Kim had ever seen.
    “Your
mother's in a better place,” Natalie told them. But it offered little comfort
to her father.
    His heart
withered when mother died, leaving an angry, brooding shadow of the man that
was. Like his mood, he now sought the dark. All the blinds remained shut , the doors locked and their home became a silent and
dusty memorial. Her father found every photograph of her mother that was ever
taken, and he taped them to the walls. He stayed up all night watching their
wedding and vacation videos. And when he finally lost his job, the fridge sat
empty until the electric company eventually turned off the power.
    Still,
the insurance check sat on the kitchen table, untouched.
    Kim met
with the grief counselor again, alone, and confided in Natalie all the details
of her father's downward spiral.
    “You need
time to mourn and heal,” Natalie told her. “You can't do that   and take care of your father at
the same time.”
    “What are
you suggesting?” Kim leaned forward in the plush chair across from the
psychiatrist.
    “Get away
for a few days.” Natalie's bright eyes enlarged like saucers. “Do you have
family you could visit for a while? You know, to relieve the stress?”
    Kim
nodded, thinking of her Grampa .

 
    After
ensuring the cupboards were stocked with cans of tuna and tomato soup, and her
father was as comfortable as possible, Kim left their dark home to stay with
her grandfather. He was heartbroken as well, and mourning the loss of his
daughter. Kim knew that. But she also knew that he wasn’t about to let her see
it.
    Sitting
her down, he smiled at her and offered, “Life won’t get any easier, darling.
But you’ll get a hell of a lot stronger.”
    When Kim
returned home a few weeks later, she found that the power had been restored,
the refrigerator was full again and the bathrooms clean. The darkness had
lifted. Not just within the house, but within her father too.
    Even the
insurance check that had been collecting dust on the kitchen table for the last
few weeks had finally disappeared.
    Kim was
elated and thankful for the change. Her father was a new man. And to celebrate,
he took her to dinner.
    With Natalie.
    “The shrink?” Kim
couldn't believe it.
    “She's a
widow,” he answered. “And she's