HER SECRET 8

Was she ever so young? She’d loved him freely, eagerly, unaware that circumstances wouldn’t always allow her to do so. That part of her life was over now. She’d never be loved that way again, and thinking about it was useless.

Now, as she inspected a pair of Will’s well-worn jeans that were free of holes but getting too short for him, she reflected on the irony of once having assumed she’d never have to work for a living except to sit on the board of her father’s oil company one day. She’d fancied herself an artist, traveling to tropical beaches and capturing the variations of sunlight on sand and water.

Well, she could blame neither her father nor herself, nor Ben and his family. She’d done this to herself. And never again would she innocently trust that someone else would always take care of her. Nor would she entrust her son’s welfare to anyone else. He was her responsibility - hers alone.

People turned away for reasons she didn’t understand. Her father, who had believed Ben was th