by Greg Dinallo
She melted in his arms, her eyes brimming with tears, her heart pounding with euphoria, and kissed him. It was as if her soul had been imprisoned all these years and suddenly released. For the first time in her life Lilah Elizabeth Graham could sense the glimmering dawn of emotional security. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t afraid her abuser might reenter it. For the first time in her life she was in the arms of a man who cared for her, a man who didn’t want something from her.
They were staring into each other’s eyes, savoring the moment, when something especially poignant dawned on her. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, she thought—and now, He taketh away and giveth. Lilah brushed a tear from her cheek, then hugged Merrick tightly and smiled at the irony.
While living in Santa Monica for the last twenty-five years, Greg Dinallo wrote and produced more than one hundred one-hour episodes for television. He has been employed by every major studio, wrote six movies for television, and a screenplay from one of his novels for Paramount. He recently moved back to New York with his wife, Gloria.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For technical assistance and information I am indebted to: John B. Livingstone, M.D., Professor of Child and Adult Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Wayne W. Grody, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medical Genetics and Molecular Pathology, UCLA Medical Center; Kathryn E. Kronquist, Technical Director, Molecular Genetics, Specialty Laboratories Inc., Santa Monica, CA; and Judith Wilner, M.D., Department of Human Genetics, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. I’d also like to thank Linda Castellano and Melissa Robbins Rutovsky for their individual support; and Lieutenant Robert Duryea of the New York City Fire Department for his technical guidance and enduring friendship.
I am also especially indebted to my agent, Joel Gotler, for his enthusiasm and unending support through five novels; and to my editor at Ballantine, Doug Grad, for bringing this one back to life.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1998 by Greg Dinallo
ISBN: 978-1-4976-5567-6
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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