s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Five
 I tell you, Alyssa, that girl is up to no good.
Alyssa tugged off her earring and switched her cell phone to the other ear. Claudine often said that
about Kim, but in this case she was inclined to believe her great-aunt. She hadn t heard from Kim in
months, at least not since her cousin s last attempt to sabotage one of the projects she d been
working on for a client.
It had cost Alyssa two weeks of production time and she had had to work every hour nonstop to
meet the deadline date she d been given. Of course, as usual, Kim had denied everything and there
hadn t been any way Alyssa could prove her guilt.
 You re probably right, Aunt Claudine, but there s nothing that I can do. You know Kim, she s full of
surprises. Usually those surprises cost Alyssa tremendously. Kim s bag of dirty tricks included
everything from sabotaging important projects to sleeping with Alyssa s fiancé and then having a
courier deliver the damaging photographs just moments before she was to leave her home for the
church.
Her troubles with Kim started when Alyssa had arrived in the Barkleys household to live with her
grandfather and great-aunt. Her mother had never given Alyssa a reason for sending her away, but to
this day Alyssa believed that Kate Harris had begun to notice her most recent lover s interest in her
thirteen-year-old-daughter s developing body.
As Alyssa was growing up, her mother had never told her the identity of her father. In fact, Alyssa
was very surprised to learn that she had a paternal grandfather. Right before her mother had put her
on the plane for Waco, she had told Alyssa that she was the illegitimate daughter of Isaac Barkley s
dead son, Todd. Todd had been killed in the line of duty as a Texas Ranger.
Alyssa had arrived in Waco feeling deserted and alone, but it didn t take long to see that the arrival
of Grandpa Isaac and Aunt Claudine in her life was a blessing of the richest kind. They immediately
made her feel wanted, loved and protected.
Unfortunately, her new relatives acts of kindness didn t sit too well with her cousin Kim, who was
the same age as Alyssa. Kim was the daughter of Grandpa Isaac s only other son, Jessie. Jessie s wife
had died when Kim was six. From what Alyssa had been told, Jessie had felt guilty about driving his
wife to commit suicide because of his unfaithful ways and had spoiled Kim rotten to ease his guilt.
Kim was used to getting all the attention and hadn t liked it one bit when that attention shifted with
Alyssa s arrival.
Alyssa couldn t remember a single time Kim had not been a thorn in her side. First, there had been all
those devious pranks Kim had played so that Alyssa could get blamed. Fortunately, Grandpa Isaac
had known what Kim was doing and had come to her defense. But instead of things getting better,
the more Grandpa Isaac stood up for her, the worse Kim got.
Alyssa s teen years had been the hardest and if it hadn t been for her grandfather and great-aunt she
doubted she would have gotten through them. And it didn t help matters that her mother never
came to visit her, never bothered contacting her at all. Kim liked to claim that Alyssa was living off
the Barkleys charity and that there were some in the family who didn t believe that Todd Barkley
had been her father anyway. That claim hadn t bothered Alyssa, because she could see that she
favored her grandfather too much not to be his grandchild. Before he d died everyone had found out
that she had actually been his child. It had been a revelation that had shocked the entire family,
especially when he had left her an equal share of everything. And in Kim s eyes, Alyssa s inheritance
had been the ultimate betrayal.
 Alyssa& 
Her aunt pulled her thoughts back to the present.  Yes, Aunt Claudine?
 Will staying with that man for a month be so bad? At least the marriage will be dissolved& if that s
what you really want.
A smile touched Alyssa s lips. Her aunt was trying to play matchmaker again.  Of course that s what I
want. It s what Clint and I both want. We don t know each other and like he said, we are victims of
someone s mistake. I really don t think it s fair that we have to suffer because of it, Alyssa explained. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]