JUST A WOMAN
Part Two
I want to shake my head at the thought, question my sanity at actually returning to this madhouse, but before I can, I hear the outer door of my rooms open.
It can only be Nate.
The door swings open and the light from the lounge pierces the darkness in my bedroom. I blink, gawking at his shadowy form.
“I didn’t realize you had a crush on Brad Pitt.”
“I was fifteen at the time.” Whatever I thought he’d say, it hadn’t been that!
He hums under his breath and switches on the ceiling light. I blink back the glare and stare up at him from between my duvet and cozy pillow. He looks around, takes in the artwork on the wall and the rest of the adolescent paraphernalia on the shelves, anything from yo-yos to trolls. But his attention is mostly on the drawings. He limps over to the wall covered in paper tacked to the surface, as he studies it, he murmurs, voice soft, “I called you back.”
“I heard.”
My defiance has his head turning to the side to stare at me. And it’s then I realize why I looked away earlier and why I’m looking away now. When a tiger stares at you, you look away. You don’t stare back, do you? Not unless you fancy being tiger kibble!
My eyes trace the flowers on the duvet and I swallow as he continues, “Different rules now, Marina. You know that. I told you in the plane.”
“No, you didn’t actually. You didn’t tell me word for word that if you called, I was to come running!”
“No, I didn’t. You aren’t wrong. But tonight is the last night for any defiance without punishment.”
Guilt is no stranger to Marina Denison, but that doesn’t mean it sits well on her shoulders.
Wherever she goes, whatever she does, death shadows her, tails her and those who surround her. She has to break the pattern, break free from the vicious cycle her life has become and the answers lie in the Blue Ridge Ranch back in Montana. Her home.
There, she must face her past, accept her present and all so that she can finally enjoy her future.
But is she strong enough to confront the years that formed her into the woman she is today?
Find out in Just a Woman…
Wherever she goes, whatever she does, death shadows her, tails her and those who surround her. She has to break the pattern, break free from the vicious cycle her life has become and the answers lie in the Blue Ridge Ranch back in Montana. Her home.
There, she must face her past, accept her present and all so that she can finally enjoy her future.
But is she strong enough to confront the years that formed her into the woman she is today?
Find out in Just a Woman…