Dying for Mercy with Bonus Material
Page 27
To look at Glenna now, no one would think she had ever had a bad day. But she had. Bad days and bad years. Even as her career blossomed, she was in a horrible marriage.
Casey had met Phillip Brooks. He was a large man with broad shoulders and big, powerful hands. The rage in his dark eyes was palpable.
When Casey pressed Glenna for information on why the marriage had ended, she didn’t offer details. She said Phillip’s jealousy and possessiveness bothered her as much as his dishonesty. She had wanted to divorce Phillip in the years before he was sent to prison, but didn’t, out of concern for Susannah and fear of how Phillip would react.
When Phillip was incarcerated, Glenna realized how peaceful the apartment was without him and how truly destructive it had been living with tension and being barraged with anger all the time. She came to the conclusion that Susannah would really be better off growing up in a tranquil home. Glenna also knew she herself didn’t want to go back to the old situation when Phillip was released. She instituted divorce proceedings.
Glenna had confided that she thought she would never marry again. She had her daughter, she had her career, and she had more money than she had ever imagined having. She didn’t want to rock the boat. But somehow—miraculously, as far as Casey was concerned—Glenna had fallen deeply in love with him and was willing to take the chance.
But now that they were actually going to be married, Casey was feeling uncomfortable.
He brought his finger to his mouth and gnawed at the nail. He didn’t want Glenna to ever regret her decision. He wanted to take care of her and he didn’t want to feel like a kept man. Intellectually, Casey knew it shouldn’t matter which spouse brought in more money. Husband and wife were a team. But the idea of contributing his pathetically small private-school salary while Glenna supplied the big bucks grated on him.
There was a solution. There was a way for Casey to have a greater income. It was perfectly legal and his right to take more money from the family business.
But his brother was standing in the way.
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DYING FOR MERCY. Copyright © 2009 by Mary Jane Clark. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-207522-2
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com