Portrait of a Home

By Rose Silverstone

All I’ve ever wanted to do is give my family the life that they deserved. I never thought I would lose everything before I had an opportunity to truly enjoy it all. Never would I have imagined I’d be given a second chance at what I believed was forever lost to me.

Some things are meant to happen. Others you have to put in place so your future is solidified. That’s all I’ve done. Nothing more, nothing less.

If there are casualties in the process it isn’t my fault. Those were brought on by the recipient.  Besides, I’m responsible for them. No one else.

They’ll understand. Eventually.

What person wouldn’t do what most deem impossible if they knew their family was in danger?

I chalk my actions up to necessary evil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Silverstone's Gems
• Release date: Apr 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386617969

Book preview

The past is a very determined ghost, haunting every chance it gets.

Laura Miller

All I’ve ever wanted to do is give my family the life that they deserved. I never thought I would lose everything before I had an opportunity to truly enjoy it all. Never would I have imagined I’d be given a second chance at what I believed was forever lost to me.

Some things are meant to happen. Others you have to put in place so your future is solidified. That’s all I’ve done. Nothing more, nothing less.

If there are casualties in the process it isn’t my fault. Those were brought on by the recipient.  Besides, I’m responsible for them. No one else.

They’ll understand. Eventually.

What person wouldn’t do what most deem impossible if they knew their family was in danger?

I chalk my actions up to necessary evil.

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Chapter 1

Moving

Matt

New Brunswick, New Jersey

S

itting in the car, I wait for my less than thrilled thirteen-year-old daughter, Aubrey, to join me. The moving truck has already pulled away and the house she has determined she is never officially vacating has nothing within it. It is as vacant as her clear blue eyes—eyes that match her mother’s former perfect blues in every way—were when I told her that we were moving. I didn’t get much else out of my mouth before she launched into her full-blown tantrum.

I’m not moving, Dad. My friends are here. This is the last place Mom was. This isn’t the way it should be for the two of us. It’s because of that new woman, isn’t it? I knew I wasn’t going to like her. I just knew it. Dad, we’ve lived here all of my life. Why are we ... Aubrey shook her head then folded her arms in an act of defiance before she reworded her question. Why are you moving?

I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that this move had everything to do with her mother, not my new girlfriend. Elizabeth, Aubrey’s mother, had always wanted to live in the country and raise our kids there. Her mother always wanted us to surrounded by land, acres of it. It’s how she’d spent her summers. Lizzie had even picked out the house that we’re moving into tomorrow. I’d promised her that I would take our girl there and teach her everything that Lizzie had taught me during our visits to her grandparents’ country home down south.

Cassie, Cassandra Warren—the girlfriend as Aubrey refers to her—feels just about the same way as my daughter. Cassie would rather we remain just where we are until after the little one she’s cooking is born. I believe her fear of change is what’s backing her tenuous acceptance of this move. I also don’t think she likes the fact that I’m honoring my wife’s wishes with this move.

Cassie is waiting on me to ask her to marry me. Aubrey has repeatedly tried to tell Cassie why it’s never going to happen. My girlfriend believes she can persuade me to do otherwise. I’ve even tried letting Cassie know that I’m not changing my stance on this issue. Elizabeth Stanton-Abbott was my heart and one true love. No one could ever take her place.

We said the words til death do us part. With that vow being as sacred as it is to me, I can’t bring myself to accepting someone else into that part of my life. They can share my bed, even my home, but no one else save my children will ever share my name. Elizabeth was one of a kind. She was a genuine, unique beauty who imbedded herself in my soul and never let go. The girl who clumsily stumbled her way into my life made her mark and I don’t want anyone to take her place. I don’t care how cruel it sounds or how crazy people believe me to be. I’m not changing my mind when it comes to this.

I’ve had people attempt to tell me that Lizzie wouldn’t have wanted me to shut down the prospect of another loving me the