Tainted Love: contemporary womens fiction love story and family saga (Behind Closed Doors Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

all of it. He talked to Robert about their will and social services, and about your adoption. He wanted you to live in the family home and go to the school they'd chosen for you with the friends you'd already made. He said it would be good for you. It would help you adjust to life without them. The less number of changes we made the more likely you'd grow and flourish, instead of becoming a delinquent like many children who lose their parents at such an important age.
    I was just functioning enough to take care of you, at the time. It was so hard being back at the house, in their space, and knowing they'd never be there again. I wanted to sell it. I didn't want to ever go back there again. So we moved. And I don't regret it, because grow and flourish you did. Look at you. I'm so proud of everything you've become.
    We had barely healed from the shock of our parents' death. We were by no means ready to accept it, move on from it, and get over it when Cal took over Daddy's practice. There was a lot for him to learn. He'd worked there just more than a year and took over from the boss, but not just any boss; a boss who'd been cruelly taken in a traumatic event, shaking the practice to its very foundation. And it was affecting business.
    A psychiatric clinic where a patient killed two employees and another patient whilst holding many others hostage made the state news. The Hawthorne Therapy Center's reputation was more than damaged. Cal had to save the practice, and that wasn't easy. He went to work early in the morning and came home late at night.
    His energy was threadbare when he walked through the door and wrapped his arms around me, apologizing for being home late, and promising to try harder to get home earlier tomorrow. I'd tell him it was okay as I cried, and God only knows why I cried. And then Georgia would wake and he'd tell me to make a cup of tea and put my feet up so he went to soothe her too. I don't know how he managed to stay on his feet.
    You see, Cal had already been through what we were going through. Not only with Emma and their baby, but his parents had also died... his mother, lost to cancer and his father to a broken heart. Now you can see why I fell for this particular grizzly bear can't you? With glimpses like these into such a gentle soul?
    "Life has to go on," he kept telling me. "It will get easier. One day you won't think about them as much, and then it will be every other day, and then every couple of days. And then, Fay..." I think this was another point where I always began to cry. I cried on Thanksgiving, Christmas, your birthday, Georgia’s first birthday… every time it felt like Mom and Dad should have been there, it brought tears to my eyes. But Cal would simply wrap his arms around me, no matter where we were or who we were with. He had no qualms about showing the love I needed at this time. "I promise, it will stop hurting this much."
    Life did go on. He was right. Eventually, it did stop being so difficult. Cal was there the day after Labor Day when I stood with you at the new elementary school he’d chosen. He promised you everything would be better this year. Then we met Uncle Robert, Aunt Gina and Izzy. You know, from the way she took your hand and you followed her across the playground as the bell rung that day... I thought then, and think even now, you'll end up marrying her.
     
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    A month later, Uncle Robert told me Cal had changed the practice name without telling me. I was angry about the secret he'd kept from me more than the family history he'd erased, although that hurt too.
    "Open your eyes, Faith," Uncle Robert said as he swept the short blonde curtain of hair from his eyes. "Something isn't right here."
    Of course Uncle Robert's opinion meant a lot to me. It was like I had two dads when I was growing up. So the fact that he was worried about what Cal was doing to our father’s legacy had me more than a little concerned. "What do you mean?"
    "Why would Calvin keep this from