Serendipity
Page 44
Still, he didn’t start to hate his father that year. The hatred started two years later, when his found out his that his father was having an affair with a diplomat’s wife. He thought he was being a good son when he returned home from the city and told his mother about seeing his father with a strange woman. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget the awful look on her face. Two weeks later Elsa Carlin packed her bags and returned to her home in Charleston, leaving him behind. The old man had handled it by pensioning her off like a servant. His mother had taken the money too; she’d marched out of the house like a soldier, her head high, her eyes brimming with tears. How cold her face was. He had thought then that the hated in her eyes had been for him. Even now he wasn’t sure that it wasn’t. What he did know now was that he was responsible for breaking up their family.
They’d never divorced, and his mother had died five years after she left. A coronary. The old man had given out some kind of piss-assed statement about his wife having had a breakdown and, good husband that he was, he had insisted she return to her family, where the atmosphere was conducive to a complete recovery. In the meantime, he and his son would manage to get along on their own. From that day, his father had totally ruled his life.
Now it was time for a change. When he got back from Vietnam, he would be mustered out and take his place in the civilian world. Then he could do whatever he wanted. He could get his divorce, provide for Alice and the baby.
His bottom line was his personal happiness. He wanted to be loved by someone, and he wanted to love that person in return. He wanted to watch sunsets, to walk in the rain, to discuss his old age, to raise a family born out of love with a partner he loved.
Maybe it would happen. Maybe it wouldn’t. Right now he had a luncheon to attend with his father, and then a year to serve in Vietnam.
Photo by M2IFOTO©2006
FERN MICHAELS is the USA Today and New York Times
bestselling author of the Sisterhood and Godmother series
and dozens of other novels and novellas. There are over
seventy five million copies of her books in print.
Fern Michaels has built and funded several large day-care
centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover
who has outfitted police dogs across the country
with special bulletproof vests. She shares her home
in South Carolina with her four dogs
and a resident ghost named Mary Margaret.
Visit her website at fernmichaels.com.
Letting Go Of The Past
With a popular comic strip, card line, and children’s cartoon
to her name, Lucy Brighton should be in a happy place.
But the ache of a cold, lonely childhood lingers on.
Even though she still lives in the New Jersey house
where she grew up, Lucy has had little contact with her
parents since they moved to Florida five years ago.
Finding Joy In The Present
Then Lucy receives a call that her parents have been killed
in a car crash. While settling their affairs in Florida,
Lucy begins to realize how little she really knew about
their lives. She has no way to explain the mysterious safe
in their bedroom, with its cache of fake passports, cash,
and weapons. What secrets were the Brightons keeping?
Were they even who they claimed to be?
The answers will shatter everything she once believed
about her parents—and about herself.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels
comes a captivating and heartfelt new novel,
as a young dancer finds an unexpected partner—
and gains the courage to live according to her heart. . .
In a city built on dreams, Trisha Holiday makes her living
moving like one. But out of her dancer’s costume, she as
down-to-earth as they come. That’s why she ignores the
admiring note—and the accompanying $1000 bill—that
arrives backstage after one of her ethereal performances.
Yet the sender, a wealthy foreign prince, isn’t easily
dissuaded. Seven years of living and studying in the
United States have made Malik long for the freedom to
choose his own bride—and the woman he wants is Trisha.
After a breathtaking visit to Malik’s kingdom culminates
in a marriage proposal, Trish attempts to adjust to an
opulent new lifestyle complete with servants, sumptuous
surroundings, and vast wealth. None of that matters to Trish
as much as Malik’s love. With Malik’s sister Soraya
proving a trusted new friend, they plan a lavish wedding
surpassing anything she could have imagined.
Yet Trish’s new life will have challenges too—adjusting
to a new and complex culture, to the myriad demands of
Malik’s royal position, and to the expectations she faces as
his wife. In the midst of her own major changes, Trish vows
to keep her sister, Emma, whose marriage had ended in a
bitter breakup. And through it all, Trish will strive to stay
true to what matters most—love, true friendship, and the
ties that hold family together across the miles and the years.
An unforgettable novel from the national bestselling
sensation Fern Michaels, about a young woman’s journey
into the heart of the unknown. . .
Callie James learned to survive in the squalid back alleys
of Dublin. Tough, spirited, and possessed of a singular
beauty, she was sent to New York to find her fortune.
But everywhere she turned there were men who saw only
what they wanted to see in her. Byrch Kenyon offered
friendship and encouragement, but he also saw the desirable
woman she would one day become. Rossiter Powers,
the rich son of a respected family, saw something else
in Callie—and nearly destroyed her. Hugh MacDuff,
rich only in love and compassion, did his best to save her.
But Callie—strong, smart and determined to succeed—
insisted on taking charge of her own destiny.
Serendipity is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 1994 by Fern Michaels, Inc.
Ballantine mass market edition: September 2011
Fern Michaels is a registered trademark of KAP 5, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
eKensington is a trademark of Kensington Publishing Corp. Kensington Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
First Kensington Electronic Edition: May 2014
ISBN: 978-1-6018-3073-9