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Автор Сьюзен Мэллери
Susan Mallery
Almost Perfect
The second book in the Fool's Gold series, 2010
To Rhinda, Nikki’s “other” mom! This one’s for you.
CHAPTER ONE
LIZ SUTTON HAD ALWAYS KNOWN the past would come back and bite her in the butt-she just hadn’t known it was going to happen today.
Her morning had started normally enough, with getting her son on the bus to school, then going down the hall to her home office, where she wrote five fairly decent pages before stopping for some serious pacing, followed by deleting three of the last five pages. She was figuring out who to murder in the first chapter of her new book, not to mention how he or she would be murdered. Was decapitation just too predictable? Luckily her assistant knocked on her door, sparing her from making a decision.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Peggy said, frowning slightly as she held out a piece of paper. “But I thought you’d want to read this. ”
Liz took the single sheet. It was an e-mail, sent to her Web site. There was a link there for fans to get in touch with her. Peggy handled most of the e-mails, but every now and then she found something she didn’t know what to do with.
“A crazed stalker type?” Liz asked, pathetically grateful for the interruption. When the writing was slow, even a death threat was more thrilling than the current work in progress.
“Not exactly. She says she’s your niece. ”
Niece?
Liz scanned the sheet.
Dear Aunt Liz,
My name is Melissa Sutton. My dad is your brother Roy. I’m fourteen years old and my sister Abby is eleven. A few months ago, our dad went to prison. His new wife, our stepmom, said she would take care of us, but she changed her mind and left. I thought Abby and me would be fine. I’m really mature for my age. My teachers say that all the time.
She’s been gone a while now and I’m really scared. I haven’t told Abby because she’s still a kid, but I don’t know if we can make it.
I don’t want to tell Dad what happened because he really liked Bettina and he’ll be sad she didn’t wait for him.So I thought maybe you could help. I know we haven’t met before, but I’ve read all your books and I really like them.
Hope to hear from you soon. Your niece, Melissa.
P. S. I’m using the computer at the library, so you can’t e-mail me back. But here’s our phone number. Even though the lights are off, the phone still works at home.
P. P. S. We’re living in your old house in Fool’s Gold.
Liz read the e-mail a second time, trying to get the words to make sense. Roy was back in Fool’s Gold. Or at least he had been, before heading off to prison.
She hadn’t seen her brother in nearly eighteen years. He was a lot older and had left the summer she’d turned twelve. She’d never heard from him again. Apparently he’d married a couple of times and had kids. Daughters. Girls who were living alone in a house that had been run-down and disgusting twelve years ago. She doubted there had been many improvements since.
