Second Chances by Joan Johnston

Author:Joan Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, texas, christmas, western, second chances, starting over, flawed heroine, bitter creek, fallen woman
Publisher: Joan Johnston

Chapter Six

Karl wandered along the edge of the river, skipping stones across the rushing water, watching them sink, like his dreams of the future. He felt raw, stunned by the stranger’s revelations. The clues had been there all along, but he’d been too blinded by love to see them.

“Mama and Marjorie Rose were up late working at night so they slept in every morning.”

“I never had a father.”

“When you know the truth, you’ll despise me.”

No wonder she’d known exactly how to arouse him when he’d kissed her. It was her job. What a fool he’d been! He’d suspected Alyssa’s deep, dark secret was the fact that she hadn’t been married to Harmony’s father. It had never crossed his mind that she must have lain with so many men that she had no idea who the man was.

Alyssa Moreland was a tremendous actress, he would give her that. He’d believed her when she acted like the sex was so special with him. The tears were a nice touch. He’d wept inside for every glistening crystal that had rolled down her flawless cheek.

Karl raised his face to the sky, opened his mouth, and let the pain out in the hoarse, ululating cry of a wounded beast.

Oh, God! Her life had been too terrible even to contemplate. Alyssa, his Alyssa, sold to that awful man. And by her own mother! What kind of woman sold her own daughter into sexual slavery?

How had he missed seeing the ravages of the past in the eyes of the woman he loved? Somehow, Alyssa Moreland had fooled him into thinking she was a lady. But she was not. Dear Lord in Heaven. She was not.

* * * * *

By the next morning, Alyssa was frantic. No one had seen Karl for hours. He hadn’t shown up for supper at the boardinghouse the previous evening. Nor had he shown up for the party being held in his honor. He seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.

“He’s just having wedding jitters,” Ellie Cooperman assured her, as she and Julie helped dress Alyssa for the wedding ceremony. They were in Alyssa’s bedroom at the boardinghouse. Jack was playing with Harmony downstairs and had promised his mother that he wouldn’t let the little girl get her new dress dirty.

“Don’t worry,” Mrs. Cooperman said. “Karl will get over it and be waiting for you at the church. Why, I remember when George and I . . .”

Alyssa continued listening, but she no longer heard.

Karl knew.

It was the only explanation that made sense. The stranger must have been Ralph Croaty, and Ralph must have told Karl what she was. Obviously, Karl could no longer bear to look at her. He would certainly never marry her.

She couldn’t really blame him. She was a whore. No, that wasn’t precisely true. She had been a whore.

It’s all in the past, Karl. I would never, never touch another man. Please believe me, Karl. I love you. I want only you.

Her plea for forgiveness, for understanding, remained unspoken.

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