Haunted Hope by Inés Saint

Author:Inés Saint [Saint, Inés]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2017-07-03T16:00:00+00:00

Number three had worked a few times over the years. One kiss was all it ever took. Even if it wasn’t bad, it was never as good as the anticipation of it…and it was never as good as her first kiss. Sweet and explosive. Filled with tender love. Because she’d loved Derek, oh so much. Nobody would ever understand it. Her stomach calmed down as an old, muted sadness settled in. It was so old and it had been with her so long, it was comforting.

When she got home, she fired up the computer, as thoughts of Derek reminded her of something that Matt had said. That maybe Derek had entered the witness protection program. It was beyond ridiculous. It was a downright stupid idea. But it was something she hadn’t considered before, and she’d promised herself she’d do everything she could to find Derek and see if that didn’t “cure” her. So, silly as it was, she did a little research about the witness protection program. But what she found didn’t jibe at all with anything she knew about Derek. It did, however, make her think of Matt.

A few websites stated that the US Marshals advised people who were changing their identities to keep their original initials. It made her relive the moment Mrs. Caputo said Matt’s initials out loud, and how Matt, who was usually so easygoing, had reacted with hostility.

But the idea that Matt Williams, who had lived in the region since he was eight, had been hiding from some sort of mobster or crime boss for twenty years was too farfetched to entertain. She rolled her eyes at herself before clicking on a link that had the most common names in the United States; a list people changing their identities were also advised to choose from. Would she be able to guess what first and last name Derek would choose? She began scanning and almost immediately stopped.

Number two on the list of most popular male names for people in her age group was Matthew, and number three on the list of most common surnames in the United States was Williams.

Feeling like a cyber-stalking middle-schooler, Hope googled him, as her grandmother had done. After ten minutes of reading, she found herself frowning again. His name appeared in countless articles. From the time he’d been an all-star in high school to his work with the DBDA. Everything from baseball stats to dean’s lists to impressive business deals in the region. But not one photograph. Not even on the DBDA’s website, where every other employee smiled at her from the screen. On top of his name there was only a gray egg.

As if she’d conjured him up, an email from Matt popped up on her screen. She opened it and clicked on the only content within it: a link to a Twitter account with the handle @DaytonBusinessDevelopmentAlliance. Their last post was a picture of her in the sunroom of the building they’d toured, looking out at the gray skies.

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