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Back When She Returned Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I wanted to shake her. Yes, yes, it was, and it was a lifetime where I had a family. One with a husband who adored me, who never would dream of hurting another human being, and there was a possibility I’d been tricked into leaving him? And a daughter who used to follow me around the same way Miles followed Abner.

I tried to keep my voice calm. She’d shut down if I got hysterical and drew attention to us. “It might have been a different lifetime ago, but it was my life, and I want to know what happened.”

She let out a sigh. “We wanted to see if someone would leave their earthly family for us.”

“But people left their family for Love International all the time.”

“Yes, but we wanted it to be an amazing family they left behind.” She lowered her voice, like it would lessen the impact of her words. “We wanted to see if what we had was powerful enough to make someone give up the love they had for something greater.”

I couldn’t process the truth. It was too big. How could they do that? How could they justify toying with people’s lives like that?

Margo’s face reflected my pain. “I’m sorry, Kate. It still makes your experience real. Nothing changes that. Nothing. We were never allowed to do anything once they were in the door. Our only influence was on getting the chosen ones there.”

Calling me a chosen one didn’t make the betrayal any less real. Tears slid down my cheeks, and I quickly brushed them away with my sleeve. “So all of this has been a game to you guys?”

She reached into my bowl and took both my hands in hers. “No, Kate. Every decision you made from the moment you walked through Love International’s door was your own.”

But I never would’ve walked through the doors if they hadn’t called my boss and requested the interview. It tainted everything that followed. I jerked my hands out of the bowl. “I don’t feel well. Find someone else to cover for me,” I said and hurried back to my tent before the sobs overtook me.

THIRTY-TWO

THIRTY-TWO

MEREDITH

NOW

Kate hadn’t been in her room when Scott had gone to check on her. She’d gone back downstairs to make coffee, and I couldn’t help but follow him down there. I hated myself for doing it, but I wanted to see what he would say to her.

“Morning, Kate. Where’s Shiloh?” he asked when he noticed she was alone. It was rare for her not to be wearing Shiloh strapped to her chest in a wrap.

“Upstairs sleeping,” Kate said while she poured creamer into her coffee. She’d told them coffee was one of the things she had missed the most while she was away.