Finding Leah: A Steele Standing Novella

By Jacqueline M. Sinclair

After years in an abusive relationship, Leah is free, and broke, but excited about the possibilities that await her. Then she finds out she's pregnant.

When her first check-up reveals a lump in her breast, the bad news just keeps coming. Leah must decide whether to accept the risks to her unborn baby, or delay treatment until it’s born, maybe even putting her chances of remission and recovery out of reach.

Realizing that you don’t have to raise a child to provide a stable, loving future, Leah makes the difficult decision to find the best family possible to adopt her child. That choice brings more than peace of mind for her and her baby. For the first time in her life, she experiences her own unconditional love.

This novella was originally published as part of the F*ck Cancer anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jacqueline M. Sinclair
• Release date: Sep 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370594207

Jacqueline M. Sinclair

Jacqueline grew up in the rural southeast and is the youngest child of a large and rowdy family. Reading was an escape when there wasn't much else around to do. She loves everything from classical literature to true crime and everything in between. With her two children grown and gone, she's surrounded by a menagerie of adopted pets and a two-legged thief who refused to give her heart back after a night of karaoke. With a day job and a dream job, her writing is a steamy combination of real life and seeking to answer the age-old question of what would happen if...and then characters come along and completely derail the plan. Letting them have their say provides plenty of sleepless nights and an endless combination of coffee and wine, but she hopes you enjoy their stories.

Book preview

FINDING

LEAH

A Steele Standing Novella

Jacqueline M. Sinclair

Finding Leah

© 2016 by Jacqueline M. Sinclair

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and events are products of the author’s imagination and any similarity to true events is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

From the Author

Prologue

Leah pulled herself up to her full height, ignoring the searing pain that shot through her right rib cage around to her back. She’d had enough; enough fighting with Shaun, enough fighting for a better life. Every day was a fucking fight, and she was sick of it. She couldn’t stop the smug smile growing on her lips and flicked her tongue out to taste the blood seeping from the split on her bottom lip.

What’s the worst you can do, kill me? At this moment, she’d welcome it.

Her question was punctuated by the crack of a fist against her left cheek. With her eye swollen shut, she never saw it coming. She slammed into the entertainment center, falling on top of the TV as the flat screen folded underneath her. A nauseating pain tore through her forearm as it absorbed the impact. Before she could grasp it in the comfort of her good hand, rough fingers curled in her hair and snatched her head back. Do not fucking play with me.

Shaun had her back on her feet, dragging her toward their room. Her feet slid out from under her as they passed through the kitchen and she struggled to keep her footing on the slick linoleum. One more jerk from Shaun was enough to take her to the floor, but it didn’t stop him from his mission. Dragging her by her hair across the floor, Leah felt the cold linoleum give way to the carpet of the hallway, then burning as the skin peeled away from her body.

She was numb, exhausted. He’d never let her leave. Hadn’t he said so with every punch he’d landed, every vile insult that had leached from his mouth these last few years? She’d known it would come to this. He was crazy, and she was just tired. So fucking tired.

Feeling herself flying through the air, Leah scrambled to fold her throbbing arm into her body to protect it from whatever she was about to land on. She hit the mattress with her back, bouncing on the bed before feeling her body yanked in another direction. Shaun had pulled her to the foot, his body crushing her, his fingers wrapped around her throat and squeezing.

Have you forgotten what happened last time you tried to train me, bitch? I am not your dog. I do not come home on command, and I am not on a goddamn leash.

Ignoring the pain, Leah clawed at the unforgiving hand, cursing in her mind that this is what her life consisted of, scratching, and struggling from one breath to the next. This isn’t how she’d envisioned spending their anniversary, and it wouldn’t be if Shaun had kept to the plan and been home to enjoy the dinner she’d spent all day making. Two phone calls. Two freakin’ phone calls over the course of two hours had sent him off on another violent tangent. Enough.

Leah’s hands went limp and sank onto the bed. Shaun’s hand tightened around her throat. Darkness was closing in. She was aware of his weight. Aware of the spittle that dampened her face as he spewed more of his hate, but the words were lost in the peace she’d found. It wasn’t worth it. Nothing in her life was worth it, never had been. There was no one to miss her, no one to save her. Death was as good as it was going to get for her, and with a defiant smile, she welcomed it.

ONE

The apartment was dingy but clean, with dull white walls and worn patches of ancient green carpet in the living room. Holes in the kitchen linoleum let the wood of the subfloor show through, and several of the scarred cabinet doors refused to close. The whole space was open, furnished with outdated essentials and that was it.

"The couch folds out into a bed, and the bathroom is through