[Harlequin] - Sally Tyler-Hayes - Homecoming (txt), Ksiazki, txt
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HomecomingbySally Tyler-hayesDear Reader: We at Silhouetteare very excited to bring you thisreading Sensation TM Look out for the four books which appear in ourSilhouette Sensation series every month. These stories will have thehigh quality you have come to expect from Silhouette, and their variedand provocative plots will encourage you to explore the wonder offalling in love--again and again.t Emotions run high in these drama-filled novels. Greater sensualdetail and an extra edge of realism intensify the hero and heroine'srelationship so that you cannot help but be caught up in their everychange of mood.We hope you enjoy this Sensationsand will go on to enjoy many more.We would love to hear your comments and encourage you to write to us:Jane Nicholls Silhouette Books POB ox 236 Thornton RoadSALLY TYLER HAYESSILHOUETTEDID YOU PURCHASE THIS BOOK WITHOUT A COVER?If you did. you should be aware it is stolen property as it wasreported unsoM and destroyed by a retailer. Neither the author nor thepublisher has received any payment for this book.All the characters in this book have no existence outside theimagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyonebearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspiredby any individual known or unknown to the author. and all theincidents are pure invention.All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or inpart in any form. This edition is published by arrangement withHarlequin Enterprises H B. V. The text of this publication or any partthereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise. without thewritten permission of the publisher. ~ This book is sold subject tothe condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,resold, hired out or otherwise ~irculated Without the prior consent ofthe publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that ,in whichit is published and without a similar condition including thiscondition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.Silhouette, Silhouette Sensation and Colophon are registered trademarksof Harlequin Books S~. " used under licence.First published in Great Britain 1996 Silhouette Books, Eton House,18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, SurreyTW9 1SRTeresa Hill 1996ISBN 0:373 07700 918-9610 ~' Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of ChathamPLC, Chatham Another novel by Sally Tyler Hayes Silhouette SensationOur Child?I am blessed in having the most wonderful mother in the world. She'skind, caring, generous with her time, her support and her love.Mum, I don't say it enough, but I hope you'll always know that I loveyou very much.Daddy, I love you, too. And I'm so glad you are a reader and that youturned me into a reader. Special thanks for those Saturdays we spentat the used bookshop. in Lexington picking out bags full of books totake home. Maybe someday I'll write you a Western.I wish you both a long, happy, healthy retirement~ Prologue 2fitllisonJennings sat pale, still and dry-eyed in the lawyer's office while hequickly and ruthlessly stripped away everything she had left.Even herself.Or at least everything she'd ever known and believed about herself.And he did it all with a self-righteous anger that she simply didn'tunderstand. ~, She had just turned eighteen, and she'd just lost herparents in a train derailment. That had been hard enough; but this?This was like something-out of "The Twilight Zone." She kept waitingfor the funny theme music to play.Glancing up, she saw that the lawyer was glaring at her, He had to bewrong.There was no other explanation. The lawyer must be wrong. But. whatif he wasn't?She gripped her trembling hands tightly together in her lap and triednot to even think about the possibility. It would be even worse thanthe accident she'd had at age thirteen, when her whole past had~disappeared. But she'dhad her parents then, to help her get through the traumaticexperience.They had filled in all the missing pieces of her past, going into long,vivid detail about all the birthday parties, Christmases and familyvacations.They hadn't had a lot of money, but they'd had a wealth of love. Andslowly, as they meticulously filled in memory after memory of theirlives together, she'd come to believe the things they said. She'dreconstructed the days and the years in her own mind, until shecouldn't quite' tell whether she actually remembered them or not.And what had it really mattered, anyway? They'd been her parents.They'd loved her, and they'd remembered. That had been enough.But now?Oh, God, now?Her stomach rolled. She pictured her mother and father in her mind asthey had left on the train for an anniversary trip to Chicago. Theyhad looked so. happy, and so very much in love. She'd never see themthat way again.She'd never be able to ask them about the unbelievable story thislawyer had told her. She could never ask them to come here and set himstraight.She looked up at him now, gathered what little energy and courage shehad left, then told the coldhearted stranger,"There's a mistake."Allison had come here yesterday, to this Indiana town where she and herparents had supposedly lived before her accident--before she lost hermemory.She'd hoped it would spark some recollection in her mind, give her somenew memories of her parents to help her through the years she now facedwithout them.It hit her now, as never before during this whole nightmare, that shewas totally and absolutely alone in the ~world, She ~had some cousinssomewhere in this town, and an uncle she thought. But she had nomemory of them. She and her parents had moved away shortly after heraccident, and they had never returned. Bad memories, her mother hadtold her, and never elaborated.Allison hadn't pushed the issue, but now she wished she had. Becausethen she wouldn't be so alone right now.Among her parents' possessions, she'd found a business card for thisattorney in Indiana, along with a scribbled note in her father'shandwriting about a will. She was certain that her parents had leftwhat little they had to her, as their only child. She-would need it,if she was to have even a hope of starting college this fall.So, she'd come here, because eight years ago her parents had made outaw ill with their lawyer who'd now become her accuser."There's no mistake," he said, his tone strident."I'm tempted to have you locked up.""Me?" she cried."For what?""Impersonating someone may~ not necessarily be a crime," the lawyerbellowed at her, "but coming in here and attempting to steal whatdoesn't rightfully belong to you certainly is!""My parents just died," she said, her voice breaking. "And I'm theirdaughter, their only daughter. I'm Allison Jennings."The lawyer moved in for the kill."I've known Libby and Randy Jennings for years. I handled the closingon their first home, twenty years ago. I was their friend. And tothink, now that they're dead, some conniving little phony would try totake advantage of them this way... It sickens me!"She didn't know what to say. She just sat there with an awful feelingof impending doom. Still, she'd lost her parents. She had no onenow.What could possibly be worse than that?"Why?" she said at last."Why do you think I'm lying?""Because Allison Jennings is dead," he told her."She's been dead for five years."Chapter'l Seven Years Later Federal Prosecutor Jack MacAlister's latestcase had brought him here,. to the wrong side of Chicago, on a cold,snowy evening, in search of a runaway shelter Called Hope House. Theweather had even the most hardened street kids scrambling for cover.Hope House, among other things, had a reputation for not skimping onthe heat or the blankets; and for serving the best shelter food in thecity.Word on the street was that it also had a new director, not much olderthan the kids herself, one who'd been out there on the streets in thenot-so-distant-past. She didn't hassle kids who didn't want a hassle,she helped the ones who were willing to accept help, and she cared forthem all.MacAlister had to admire that particular quality in anyone who dealtwith so many hopeless cases. Caring was a very dangerous thing. Toomuch of itwould eat a person ~ alive. Too little, and a person couldn't do thejob the way it needed to be done.He struggled with that himself.He walked past the converted Xrlctorian house that held the staffoffices and those of the foundation that ran the shelter. Next doorwas an old parochial school, which now served as the runaway shelter,among other things. He brushed the snow out of his hair and off thelapels of his heavy overcoat, feeling more than a little uncomfortablewhile next to him kids in jeans, sweatshirts and lightweight~. coatsstood shivering in the cold in the lengthening lines to get inside.Jack MacAlister had never wanted for anything in his entire life, andhe worried that these kids always would.He tried hard not to look at their faces, not when he might well seethem again all too soon, under different circumstances. Shootingvictims, drug overdoses, kids who belonged on elementary schoolplaygrounds rather than the morgue--he saw too many of them, too often,to look these kids in the eye.It was hard enough to do his job in...
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