THE PRIVATE LIBRARY · PREVIEW
Grace has brought Liam halfway across the country, yet the final stretch up a long driveway is the hardest part. He is nervous about meeting relatives he has not seen for five years; she is afraid of what the meeting could mean for their life together. Read the first two chapters free to enter that uneasy arrival and the earlier life that follows it.
CHAPTER ONE
Chapter 1 Prologue
Grace sucked in a deep breath after she stopped the car on the side of the road. She had stopped shy from the long driveway leading to a massive house. Grace glanced at the rear-v…
Grace sucked in a deep breath after she stopped the car on the side of the road. She had stopped shy from the long driveway leading to a massive house. Grace glanced at the rear-view mirror and at her eight-year-old son. The boy’s leg bounced in anxiety as he looked out of the window, toward the house. It was a nervous trait he had picked up from Grace. He ran his hands through his unruly hair which had red highlights running through it. His eyes flickered in her direction quickly before he glanced back out of the window. Grace knew her son like the back of her hand. After all, he was not only her son but her best friend, as well. "Liam?” Grace called out. “Are you feeling okay?" she asked quietly. He jerked his head swiftly, letting her know he was okay. "I have nervous butterflies in my stomach, Maa. You know how it feels, right?" he responded, staring at her, asking for her understanding. Grace nodded in understanding. They had traveled halfway across the country to come to this house. That was a long way from home. The house was a few miles outside the main city of Fairview and homed a family that Liam hadn’t met in the last five years. Neither Grace nor Liam knew what to expect from this trip since Grace had been too nervous to call in advance and speak to someone. The trip wasn’t spur of the moment, but it sure as hell felt like it. Grace had employed a private detective, who had promptly found everything there was to find about the Kains. Grace had looked over the information, and booked their tickets to Fairview, not thinking through the matter thoroughly before doing so. Now, she was filled with doubt about how good her decision had been. ‘Maybe it was better if we hadn’t come here,’ she thought. Liam was legally her son and there was no way to prepare for what might take place once they knocked on the door of the huge house. Was she ready to share the son she had adopted years ago? Could she give Liam up if push came to shove? Grace’s heart constricted in her chest, knowing that the last thought was not an option she could accept. She couldn’t survive without her son; he was her everything. Grace turned the engine back on and sat still near the driveway for a few minutes. She was tempted to turn the car and head back to the airport. She could simply book a return ticket home, to their cozy three-bedroom house in Crowell. But she knew she couldn’t do that because Liam deserved to meet his biological family and learn about his past. She drove up the kilometer long driveway and pulled up in front of the enormous three-story house. Taking another deep breath, Grace turned off the car and unhooked her seat belt. Liam followed her action and waited patiently for Grace to open her door. After climbing out of the driver’s seat, Grace walked over to where her son was already standing by the rear passenger door. He was all grown up and didn’t need her to open the door for him any longer. He reached out for his mother’s hand, not taking his eyes off the house in front of him. Grace wrapped her fingers around his small hands and started to walk forward and up the grand steps that led them to the porch. There were swings on either side of it. The house was a light grey color with darker accents. "Do you think you are ready?" Grace asked, looking down at Liam. He nodded nervously. "I think I am going to puke, though," he groaned softly. She snickered, glad for the distraction because she was close to puking as well. The broken tension was all it took for her to muster up the courage to press her finger to the doorbell. “Here we go. There is no turning back now,” she whispered. Liam and her lives would change after that moment, she was confident of it. She prayed it was a good change, because otherwise she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.
PAUSE · ONE CHAPTER IN
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CHAPTER TWO
Chapter 2 Life Of A Normal University Student
July 19, 2017 "Grace! If you don’t wake up right now, you will be late!" Grace Newman groaned and rolled over in her bed. She pulled her cover down and squinted at the clock on her bedside table to check the time. It read 7:30 AM. "Oh shit!" she yelled as she jumped out of bed. "Stupid alarm!” she whined. “I am going to be so late.” She grabbed a pair of jeans and a well-worn black t-shirt hastily. She stumbled to find a clean pair of underwear from her drawers before rushing out of her room and into the bathroom. Her mother, Olivia leaned against the wall between their rooms with a knowing grin on her face. “Did you oversleep again?” Grace huffed and shut the bathroom door with a thud. She quickly changed and brushed her teeth. Finally, she took a cleansing breath and stared at the mirror to make sure her hair didn’t look too bad. She picked up her brush and detangled her dark brown hair. Her eyes were round and large, matching the color of her hair. She would have liked to think that when she smiled, she looked rather pretty. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and dashed back to her room to pick up her bag. Olivia had already made her way to the kitchen and held out her daughter’s travel mug, which was now filled with hot coffee, Grace’s choice of morning drink. Olivia stepped out into the hall just as Grace was barelling down the stairs. She grinned and hugged her mother. “Thanks, Mom. I would have died without the coffee!” Grace exclaimed as she squeezed her mother. Olivia rolled her eyes as she pulled away and walked Grace out the front door. “Don’t forget to greet your friends on my behalf. They haven’t been over in such a long time. You’re meeting Gina and Lily today, right? Tell them to come over when they have time.” Gina Newman and Lily Duff were two of Grace’s best friends. While Gina was officially her cousin, the three girls attended high school together and subsequently applied and got through to the same university. Lily was busy since her mother passed away unexpectedly the previous year and was now caring for her younger sister alongside her widowed father. Lily felt better about staying at home and attending university close to home because she wanted to wait for her sister to graduate high school before she transferred elsewhere. Grace jumped into her new car, given to her by her mother on her eighteenth birthday. She had to make a headway to the university which was thirty kilometers from her house. If she broke the speed-limit she might make it to class on time. Almost five hours later, Grace emerged from the Computer Science building. It had taken her one and a half hours to get to university and then she had sat for a long lecture. Grace was stressed, cranky and hungry. Luckily, she was meeting Gina and Lily at a little cafe near the university. She walked briskly to the cafe and pulled out her phone to check her messages. Gina had left two missed calls and there was also one message from her almost boyfriend Jarred. Grace and Jarred had been friends since they were children and fell into an easy relationship upon becoming adults. It felt more like hanging around a friend rather than a boyfriend with him. Though Jarred had tried on several occasions to initiate intimacy with her, Grace had been reluctant. She didn’t think she was ready to take that step with him. Gina had long lost her V-card and boasted about her sexual prowess. Lily was the exact opposite, deciding to wait until marriage to have sex. She shoved her phone back into her pocket when she arrived at the cafe, deciding to call him afterwards. She waved at the waitress and walked over to their usual table by the window. Lily and Gina were already waiting. Grace dropped her bag on the floor beside the chair and plopped down with a heavy sigh. “Why did I sign up for an early class?” she groaned, laying her head on top of the table. “And my phone alarm is broken too. It never wakes me up on time.” Gina chuckled. "Because it is a mandatory class for credits?” Lily chimed in. Grace heard her stomach growl just as the waiter was approaching. "Can I get you ladies the usual?" a deep voice asked. Grace looked up and smiled half-heartedly at Samuel, who worked there part time while going to law school. He also happened to be Gina’s boyfriend. "My stomach is caving in, Samuel! Just get me something." Grace smiled up at him. Samuel stood tall at six feet and five inches with shaggy blond hair that curled around his ears and bright but dark eyes. He was kind and has a relaxing demeanor about him that made people feel at ease and spill their guts to him. He was a good match for her cousin Gina, who was bubbly and mildly eccentric. It also helped that they were hopelessly in love with one another. Grace was a little jealous of how close they were. She would never admit to Gina but the couple was one of the biggest reasons why she hadn’t slept with her boyfriend as of yet. She was certain that she wasn’t in love with Jarred, her boyfriend. She thought of him as a friend and she wanted to give herself to someone she really loved like Gina and Samuel seemed to love one another. When she was a child, her parents argued constantly until her father up and left them when Grace was nine. Her father Ben Lee thought too highly of himself and wanted a life of freedom. But no one had expected him to abandon his wife and daughter and never look back. That was eleven years ago and Grace hadn’t heard from him since. He sent her an occasional gift card from wherever in the world he was at the time. But other than that, she hadn’t spoken a word since the last morning he was in their house. “Thank god it’s the weekend,” Gina moaned. “What should we do this weekend, girls?” she asked as Samuel walked away to grab their usual order. Lily shook her head with a smile, knowing she would go along with whatever plans Gina came up with. Grace on the other hand was deep in thought, biting her lip as she did so. "I am having dinner with Mom and Edward on Sunday night,” grace replied. “I think Edward finally proposed to Mom and they are going to move in together in our home.”
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