Among the Ducklings (27 page)

She didn't
blame Phil for not wanting to take her back after the episode with Richard. But
she hated to know that Phil was going through such a difficult period and in
pain.
 

“It's very
hard to get in touch with you,” the familiar voice said, the voice that she
dreamed of hearing every night before she went to bed, and every morning when
she woke up. She turned and her heart jumped as Phil came and sat down next to
her.

“I heard
what happened. I’m sorry,” Isabel said.

“Actually,
it was my fault. I should have never acted the way I did with you,” Phil said.

“Both of us
made mistakes,” Isabel said.

Then Phil
asked, “Tell me Isabel, if someone loves you but has screwed up badly, what
should he
do to get you back?”

Isabel
turned and looked at him with those eyes, the tender eyes that melted his heart
when they first met.

Isabel
couldn’t believe that her love, the man of her dreams, was asking her for a
second chance.
 
She thought she was the
one who had screwed up. Then she heard herself say, “That person should not be
married, he should never go to the Keys again without me, and finally, he
should like ducklings.”

Phil then
gently wrapped his arms around Isabel.
 
Their first kiss had never felt so right.

Epilogue

Back in
California, Stacy was lying by the pool of an exclusive hotel, waiting for a press
conference that would soon take place.
 
At the press conference, Stacy would be escorted by two experts.

The first
expert was the doctor at the abortion clinic. He was going to say that he was
the one who had made the determination that the abortion was medically
necessary, and that continuing the pregnancy would have ended the lives of
both Stacy and the baby.

The second
was a handwriting expert. He was going to say that he had analyzed Andy
Marshall's signature from the letter that was published by the paper, and
determined it to be a fake.

Then it
would be Stacy's turn to put on a gut-wrenching performance on how devastated
she was when the doctor told her that she needed to have the abortion in order
to survive.

Thinking
about Phil and Isabel, Stacy realized that Isabel had won the battle. However,
love is not a battle.
 
Love is a war with
many battles, and one has to be patient.
 
 

Then she
thought about the letter that was printed in the paper.
 
Something didn’t feel right to her.
 
She knew that Andy didn’t type or use a
computer. Plus it didn’t make sense that there would be a letter addressed to
her. Why couldn’t Andy just talk to the press before he died?
 
It would have carried more weight. Someone
was behind this.
 
Then she remembered the
paper talking about Andy’s sister.

“Wherever
you are dear ex-sister-in-law, watch your back. You’ll pay for this,” Stacy
said to herself, drawing already in her mind her plan for revenge.

Looking
at her watch, Stacy then got up. She had already wired the money that the
experts requested for the statements that her publicist had written for them.
Now she needed to resume practice for the press conference.

She was
frankly tired of crying and repeating her lines in front of the mirror.
 
But she knew she didn't have a choice if she
wanted to give a good performance at the press conference.
 
After all, her motto had always been about
the 5 “P”, which was short for Prior Preparation Prevents Poor
Performance.
  
Then Stacy smiled. She was
ready to shine again.

For more
information about Marsh Books, and the author’s next novel, please visit marshbooks.com.