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Prologue

Louisville, Kentucky

January 1991

“Why would ht he loved me,” Samantha Elliot said to theas she could remember That this soft-spoken man had colluded with her father intensified the hurt and the sense of abandon

Not that she needed anything to intensify the pain she already felt Three hours ago she had stood by the grave of her father and watched with hot, dry eyes as they lowered his coffin into the ground She was only twenty-eight years old, yet she had already seen more death than most people experience in a lifetione; her grandparents were gone; and Richard, her husband, ht as well be dead, for she’d received the final divorce papers on the day her father died

“Sa “Your father did love you He loved you very, very much, and it’s because he loved you that heher closely; his wife had said she orried that Samantha had not shed a tear since her father had died “Good,” the attorney had said “She has her father’s strength”

“But her father wasn’t strong, was he?” his wife had snapped in return “It was always Sath And now she’s stood by and watched her father shrivel and die before her eyes, yet she’s taken it all without a tear”

“Dave always said Samantha was his rock” The lawyer closed his briefcase and left the house before his wife could say anythingto say when the contents of David Elliot’s will becae

Noatching Samantha as she stood in her father’s library, he could feel sweat trickling down his neck as he re to talk Dave Elliot out of this will, but he’d not been able to persuade hihed ninety-two pounds and could barely speak “I owe her a chance,” Dave had whispered “I took her life away froive it back I owe her”

“Sa woman An adult woman who has to ht as well not have said anything for all the attention Dave paid him; his mind was set

“It’s just for one year That’s all I ask of her One year She’ll love New York”

She’ll hate New York, the attorney thought but didn’t voice his opinion He had known Sayback rides when she was a child, and he’d seen her laugh and play like other children He’d seen her run races and play tricks on her parents, and he’d seen her pleased with a good grade on a test and crying when she’d not done as well He’d seen Saue with her mother over the color of a dress or whether she could wear lipstick or not Until she elve years old, she’d been a normal child in every way

But looking at her now, just a few hours after Dave’s funeral, he could see what she had beco her beauty under a proper little dark suit that would have suited a woe In fact, it see she could to hide her femininity: She pulled her pretty hair back, she wore little to no cos, and nondescript But worse than her outward appearance was the inner Samantha; for many years now Samantha had rarely sh

When she did sht, she was very, very pretty His o, before Samantha married, before she left Louisville, when she had coym Dave was in the den on the telephone, and she hadn’t known anyone else was in the h

ouse Standing by the sliding-glass patio doors, a glass of iced tea in his hands, the attorney had been about to say hello to Sa stretches in the living roo calf propped on the back of the couch The attorney forgot all about her being the daughter of a friend and had stared in open-ht of as rather plain Her hair had co to her face in soft, curling tendrils of spun gold; her skin was rosy from her workout, and her eyes were thick lashed and brilliant blue He’d never noticed that her lips were so full that they looked almost pouty or that her nose had an impudent little tilt to it Nor had he noticed that she had a body that should have been iazine spread with curves where they should be and all of her tightly toned

“They do grow up, don’t they,” Dave had said fro caught gaping at a girl young enough to be his daughter Obviously, what he had been thinking showed on his face Embarrassed, he turned away and went outside with Dave

It was years later, while Dave was preparing his will, that he said that he’d taken all the “juice” out of Sas to her that a father shouldn’t do to a child,” he’d said, and the lawyer, all too vividly re Samantha’s curvy little body in a red leotard, had quickly put away his papers and left the house He res of forbidden lust that he should not have for a friend’s daughter Even though Dave was on his deathbed, he didn’t want to hear confessions of the type that Dave see He didn’t want to hear confessions of what should never happen but all too often did

Now, the attorney wondered what Dave had done to Sa to ask, for he was not brave enough to step into a world he’d rather not hear about

“I don’t want to do this,” Sa down at her hands “I have other plans”

“It’s only for one year,” the lawyer answered, repeating Dave’s words “And you’ll receive a great deal of money at the end of the year”

As Samantha walked to the , she put her hand on the brocade curtains One of the last things she and her ether was choose these curtains, and Sa at hundreds of saht color and texture In the backyard was a tree her grandfather and she had planted when Samantha was a toddler When she was ten, Granddad Cal had carved a big C + S on the trunk, saying that, this way, they’d be together as long as the tree lived Turning, she looked around the room, the room that had been her father’s, the place where she’d sat on her father’s knee, the place she and both her parents had played and laughed together Richard had proposed to her in this room

Sole desk and picked up the rock he had used for a paperweight On its smooth surface, painted in blue paint in a child’s crude lettering, were the words I love you, Daddy She had rade

Teeks before her father died, while Saht they had become the closest they had ever been, he had secretly sold the house and ht much about herself in those weeks before her father died, but he had repeatedly asked her what she was going to do after his death Reluctantly, Samantha had said she’d probably live in the house, take a few college courses, teach some computer classes on the side, and do what other people did eren’t working six days a week as Sa for the last two years Her father hadn’t said a word in reply to her answer—but obviously he had not liked her answer

Saht down and looked at the attorney “He gave no reason for selling the house?”