Finding Faith Read Online Free Page B

moment, he knew that his life would be changed forever. Having the cops show up at his office asking about his wife had not been on the list of possibilities.  
    Earlier that day, he had called Heather. Needing to speak with her after the feeling had come over him, they had been joking and laughing just minutes before she headed into a lunch meeting with a client.  
    “Baby, if you’re pregnant, I want a boy this time.”  
    “Who says I’m pregnant?” Her sweet voice responded with laughter. “I’m not you know. But, even if I were, who says it’s up to me what you get. Last I heard, it was the father who decided sex.”  
    Settling into his chair, he looked out the window as they continued to talk, “Well, I just got that feeling and it usually happens when something huge is going to happen. Like when you were pregnant with Madison, and when I got this job offer, even when Rob and Leslie asked us to be the godparents for Bree.”  
    What he failed to mention, and never would, is that these feelings also came right before they were attacked by insurgents and the day his father had a heart attack. No, his focus that day was on the positives.  
    “I think you just want someone to watch football with .” She laughed into the phone as he heard her turn off her car and exit.  
    “Nope, because Madison is going to be there, too. I’ll make sure she gets the right kind of sports education.” And no dating, he thought. There’s no way in hell she’ll date a boy like me.  
    Because of his career in the military, they had both agreed to wait until he had finished serving until they had children. Madison was born just six and a-half months ago at the time, and Heather had already been talking about having another one. Steeling his nerves for what he was about to hear, he spoke to the officer again, “Yes, I’m Cooper Branson. What can I do for you, Sergeant?”  
    The officer looked at him without blinking, as if schooling his features to deliver the next words out of his mouth, “Sir, I’m sorry to tell you, but there’s been an accident.”  
    Silence.  
    Although the police officer's mouth continued to move and words were coming out, Cooper didn't hear a word he said. The silence was deafening. Loud ringing was all he could hear and he tried to clear his head of the sound. What was the officer saying again? An accident? Dead on impact? It happened so quickly? She felt no pain? How do they know she didn’t feel any pain? How do they know his wife didn’t suffer for even one-second?  
    “Oh, God. This can’t be happening,” he managed to say the words, but hadn’t really been aware of his actions. He then heard a keening wail that shattered his soul and it took a few seconds for him to realize it was coming from him. The sound was coming from inside of his soul and unbeknownst to him, had echoed across the entire 10th floor executive suite.  
    Heather had been his rock, the person who had gotten him through the difficult years of serving in the U.S. Army and the three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. After all they had been through, and finally deciding to live their lives and raise a family, he was being told that someone had killed his wife at a stoplight in Alexandria, Virginia. She was never coming home again.  
    Blinking back to the present, Cooper knew that his gut feeling that day had been right. Only thing was, it hadn’t been the stuff his dreams had been made of.  
    It had been the start of a nightmare.  
    Over time, he had learned to understand and interpret those feelings better and he knew that today, the feeling he had when looking over at his neighbor’s house, had been new. Different. Unlike anything he had felt before. That scared him, but not in the way one would think.  
    It actually gave him hope. It meant there was a whole new experience in front of him. Life was throwing him a curveball. All he had to do was decide if he was going to strike out or swing for the fences.