BooksBarbecue
Back Born Out of Wedlock Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Born Out of Wedlock
  2. Dedication
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Prologue
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Chapter Nineteen
  24. Chapter Twenty
  25. Chapter Twenty-One
  26. Chapter Twenty-Two
  27. Chapter Twenty-Three
  28. Chapter Twenty-Four
  29. Chapter Twenty-Five
  30. Chapter Twenty-Six
  31. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  32. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  33. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  34. Chapter Thirty
  35. Chapter Thirty-One
  36. Chapter Thirty-Two
  37. Chapter Thirty-Three
  38. Chapter Thirty-Four
  39. Chapter Thirty-Five
  40. Chapter Thirty-Six
  41. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  42. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  43. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  44. Chapter Forty
  45. Chapter Forty-One
  46. Chapter Forty-Two
  47. Chapter Forty-Three
  48. Chapter Forty-Four
  49. Chapter Forty-Five
  50. Chapter Forty-Six
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Other Titles by Author

They had become opposing forces; headstrong and insistent each held her ground, and arguments began to break out if one so much as glanced at the other. The staff made themselves scarce. Disappearing into the kitchen or finding the furthest corner to clean, they hunched their shoulders, shook their heads, and prayed to God for détente, but peace did not come.

Fourteen days after Joanna had first told Addison to leave The Oaks, Addison did just that. With her head bowed and her heart broken, Addison climbed aboard her corporate jet fighting back tears as she left her homeland and the woman she loved behind, but before the plane had landed, her emotions had solidified into a rage bordering on an inferno.

Chapter Forty-Two

Six months later...

Joanna opened her eyes and smiled. When Addison had left The Oaks months before, Joanna had suffered through more than a few sleepless, teary-eyed nights before one morning her tears refused to fall any longer. Staring at her naked self in the bathroom mirror, she noticed the smallest of baby bumps, and suddenly things became clear. She had survived after the loss of her father...and she would survive now.

A month after Addison abandoned Joanna, the staunch walls of foreboding she had erected within The Oaks with her attitude began to crumble, and soon music could be heard throughout the house. Drapes and windows were opened to allow fresh air to enter, but with air came sunlight and before too long Joanna decided changes needed to be made. She didn’t know how long she’d live at The Oaks, and technically it wasn’t her house, but while she lived under Addison’s roof, while she and her child lived under Addison’s roof, it would be a place bright and cheerful where no shadow would ever lurk again.

Familiar with all the areas of the house save one, one dreary, rainy morning Joanna walked to the west wing and opened the doors, the hinges causing her to hunch her shoulders as they screeched for oil. Just as Evelyn had told her so many months before, the layout seemed identical to that of the east wing. Yet even though the placement of the rooms appeared to be the same, Joanna paused. During one of her many conversations with Evelyn over morning coffee, Joanna had found out that it had taken Evelyn and the staff only two days to prepare the east wing for the arrival of her and her father. As Joanna stood in the doorway, something seemed off. There was no way anyone could have cleaned this wing in two days, let alone a month.