From Ruin to Radiance

ary, Nora Payne and Ethan Stanley ended up i

t a club until after midnight, an

s lips trembled. "Ethan, d

meared with lipstick prints. "After all th

ddened. Of cou

from woman to woman, day and night. No respectable fami

een like this. She had personally witnesse

his wife, he treated her with courtesy, gran

n to indulge every appetite, turning cold toward Nora. Sh

ss kept a small hope alive ins

luxury cars in his garage and be

d photographs of Ethan and the female

a striking resemblance to his first love, a woman dead

inging sunlight nothing beside the pain of seeing him pressed against an

Ethan stepped down, his usual careless

ora! If you want to die, don't do it in front of m

e, but he seized her col

flared in

and I'll have

for the driver, who now adjus

Nora saw the woma

she forced it down. "Ethan, sna

d at Nora. "Ethan, is that Miss Payne? I re

turned bloodshot. He stared a

t was

itter hurt. For years Rosalyn's name had been forbidden,

oks like Rosalyn, you believe her?

ng out like

ing the metal door with a hollow clang. The blow

and to her, no matter h

othing more than a

agony leeching her streng

nd in the haze she

n had grown

y, brilliant and dazzling, while she, raised

found him co

g changed e

t in terror, yet Ethan stayed calm, even comf

ck through the freezing night,

Nora had a c

ame her shyness, presented a homemad

n replied with distant politeness. "I'

stabbed

l beside him; she believed the

d to the floor. "Ethan, I won't pester yo

ed, so

ry she finally saw t

it that when Rosalyn Harper smiled,

ith a tenderness Nor

ned; she turned a

y her love, Rosalyn jumped

ssion, some sai

an looked hollow,

a stayed with him

rriage, she believed her devotion h

restrained, yet granted her

ilt that way, and if she could st

turned ice cold, not holding back

loved gnawed at her until she dou

her onto a stretcher, No

white dressed woman, neve

vein, and darkness