As Waters Gone By by Cynthia Ruchti

Author:Cynthia Ruchti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Fiction
Published: 2015-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

15

Emmalyn’s stomach churned. Whitecapped waves had nothing over the violent sloshing. The end of the line? He hadn’t communicated with her for four of the almost five years he’d been incarcerated and he thought this might be the end of the line?

Anxiety rippled through her. She’d mailed another note since the first one. A tender note. Vulnerable. He obviously hadn’t received it yet when writing this one to her. What had she said? Her mind traced back through where her heart had been as she put the words on paper.

“No. No, no, no! Not now, Max. Not when I was starting to hope again. Don’t you do this to me.”

The dog twitched at her words, then settled back into a dream that had more chance of coming true than Emmalyn’s.

His change of heart? It had to be Claire, the one who could make babies. Claire, the one who succeeded in becoming a mother. The one he’d been speaking to from prison.

What if Emmalyn hadn’t given up after eight months of unanswered mail, of her begging him to call her so they could talk? What if she’d persisted back then rather than eventually giving up? What if she’d acted as if her heart was merely wounded, not shattered? Would it have made a difference?

Max claimed he and Claire were over before their record-short relationship began. Their workplace romance had started to curdle almost the moment they decided to date. Within two months, they were history. She left the financial management office and their relationship on the same day. Claire told him about the baby after the fact, insisting she didn’t want his involvement in the child’s life. That lasted until she moved in with a guy who had a hard time hanging on to jobs and her newborn daughter developed an aversion to all but the most expensive brand of formula.

Emmalyn laid her head against the back of the chair in her cottage for one. Max hadn’t asked for a paternity test. Did that make him a fool or honorable? By the time Hope Elizabeth turned three, Emmalyn stopped wondering. The little girl’s eyes, chin, lopsided dimples, and sweet temperament mimicked Max’s.

“How did Claire do it, Max?” Emmalyn asked the empty chair across from hers. “How did she worm her way back into your life?”

She knew the answer. They shared a child between them. The glue missing from the bond between Emmalyn and Max.

“See, Max? I can do math.”

If a fire had been lit in the fireplace, she would have charred the letter and eventually removed it with the rest of the ashes.

But she hadn’t taken time to light a fire. Curiosity drove her to read the rest, if nothing else, to see how honest he intended to be.

Where had she left off?

. . . should have told you months ago . . . tearing me up inside . . . the end of the line for us. Claire’s been in touch. She’s going through a really rough time.

“I understand, dear. My life is peachy at the moment.

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