Learning To Love Again (Book #1 In The Learning To Love Again Series

by Jessica Danielle

  Carmen dropped the gun, a satisfied smile on her face at Willow bleeding out on the ground next to the pool.

  Micheal looked in Willow’s direction as his face fell at the sight of her on the ground. Giving Andrew enough time to punch him square in the face and then firing the gun at Micheal watching him fall onto the ground.

  Andrew sneered at Micheal’s body lying on the ground. He turned to face Carmen, and saw that Willow was lying on the ground, blood everywhere. Andrew went towards Willow and kneeled next to her, holding her head in his hands.

  “What have I done? What have you done?” he asked, turning to face Carmen.

  With a look of pure rage that she had never seen on him before, which scared her.

  “Carmen, come here my love,” Andrew said, as he had the gun still in his hand, as Carmen looked at him apprehensively. He looked back at her with narrowed eyes, covered in your blood.

  “I swear I thought it was for the best. For both of us,” Carmen said, unsure.

  “Nothing to fear my love. What’s dead is dead,” Andrew replied, to reassure her, as he got up, holding out his hands for her to take.

  “To the start of a new future together,” Andrew said with a smile on his face, Carmen looking up at Andrew with loving eyes. Then pulled his hand away and shot her. Then dragging her, kicking and screaming towards the edge of the property and pushing her off the cliff that the house sat on, watching Carmen's body tumble down the dirt cliff, he heard the sounds of sirens coming.

  The cops.

  He looked back at Willow’s body on the ground covered in blood, and Micheal’s still body before hopping down the dirt cliff in the opposite direction of Carmen’s body.

  Tommy drove the suburban onto the property following behind the cops that made their way in. Amanda jumped out of the truck before it was fully stopped. Running towards them, as they tried to stop her.

  “They are my friends, please let me through,” She said as the cops stopped her, as she looked past them. Seeing a couple cops applying first aid to Micheal and Willow who were laying the ground in their own blood.

  “Ma’am you need to let us do our job. We have an ambulance under way to take them to the hospital,” one of them said, as Amanda looked at the male cop's face, feeling slight relief.

  “So they will be fine?” she asked as an ambulance drove up to the property, getting out and wheeling gurneys with them to where Willow and Micheal were still laying.

  “Yes, you can follow the ambulance to the hospital, now if you don’t mind we have to search the property since there were reports of shots fired and someone running from the scene reported by neighbors, let the EMTs take them to the hospital” the cop said, turning away.

  Amanda turned and saw Eric and Tommy walking towards her with solemn faces, with Evan behind them.

  “Its going to be ok, they are alive, they are being taken to the hospital,”Amanda explained, as her eyes scanned Tommy and Eric’s faces, seeing relief wash over them. Then at Evan who looked frightened still.

  “My dad’s ok? Miss Willow is ok?” he asked as Amanda nodded.

  “Yeah, they are going to the hospital, they will be ok. But I think your mom should be called,” She said as she saw Eric start dialing the number on his cell phone, and stepping away, but still able to hear the start of the conversation.

  “Hey Pam, it’s Eric, I wanted to call and let you know something happened at the house. No, no Evan is fine. But it’s about Micheal,” he said over the phone as Amanda felt Evan move towards her, wrapping his arms around her, shaking in her hold. As she returned the hug.

  “Its’ going to be ok. Your dad’s going to be fine, I know it,” she said hoping that would calm the boy’s nerves.

  Tommy turned at the sight of another set of lights coming into the driveway. Clicking off a second later, as Larry came out of the car and towards them.

  “What happened? I tried to call earlier and didn’t get an answer,” Larry said as his eyes scanned the driveway taking in the ambulance and the cop cars.

  “It was Andrew he came here to get Willow and attack them both. Cops are looking for him, but they are pretty sure that Micheal and Willow will be fine. They are being taken to the hospital,” Tommy explained as they watched from a distance as both Willow and Micheal were loaded into separate ambulances.

  “I was going to stay over this weekend knowing that Willow was coming. Micheal waved if off, said I should spend the weekend with my wife. I knew I shouldn’t have left. This could have been avoided if I had ignored his order and stayed,” he said as Tommy shook his head.

  “This isn’t your fault, come with us to the hospital,” Tommy said as the ambulances left the property.

  Eric walked back up to join them, ending the call, and looking at Evan.

  “Your mom is on her way to the hospital now, let’s get going,” Eric said, as they all got into the suburban, along with Larry as well, as they followed the ambulances, leaving the cops to search for Andrew in the night.

  Acknowledgments

  This book has been years in the making. It was a whole other work that has been reworked into this beautiful thing. With characters that I fell in love with years ago, and grew closer throughout the reworking process. There a little bit of Willow in me. And Amanda, Amanda is solely based off a best friend of mine, that I love dearly.

  To my parents thank you for always encouraging me in my passion for writing and reading at a young age. Now it’s backfired and I can’t seem to stop writing out the ideas that are rattling around in my head because of you two.

  To my cousin Dakota Clayton, you took my love for reading and introduced me to other genres that have accumulated to me being the weirdo that I am now.

  To my awesome beta readers, Valerie Madrid, Jenny Watkins and Emily, you guys helped me through the 1st draft until the end. Listening to my ramblings but also kept me going. Also with some funny gifs that helped along the way. As well as the countless amounts of drafts and revisions that came into the final product now.

  Special thanks to my beta reader Emily, you’ve been with me from the beginning listening to my ramblings. Helping me with descriptions and of course titles, also for encouraging me to continue writing through the hard times.

  To my patrons on Patreon, Brittanie Robles-Greene, you are the one that pushed me to come back to this and rework it. Michelle Mitchell, Paige, Pat and Morgan Howard, thank you for always putting up with my ramblings while I’ve been working on this and other projects. And supporting me throughout this writing journey.

  To the readers that have just finished reading this. Thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it, and don’t hate me too much for the ending. But that is what sequels are for right?

  About the Author

  Jessica Danielle is an emerging author of romance. She lives in California with her two dogs Zoey and Stella. And is avid viewer of true crime and loves classic rock music. This is Jessica’s first book.