I Questioned My Fate

Mari D. Wise

Description

When things took a turn for the worst, Nora changed her fate and took the path less traveled to find the answers nobody else searched for. The answers led her to more than she bargained for in the company of the neighbor Knox.
Nora was orphaned in a tragic incident where her parents were murdered. Determined to get justice for her parents nearly 20 years later, Nora reopens her parents case. Along the way she inherits her parents house returns to her home town and meets the handsome neighbor. Nora begins a path that she felt drawn to and realizes that it is not going to be the path she had laid out for herself when the journey starts.

Sujets

• Suspenso
• Fate
• Suspense
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 12 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665742108
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

I QUESTIONED MY FATE
 
 
 
 
 
 
MARI D. WISE
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Mari D. Wise.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4211-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4210-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023906404
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 04/06/2023

 
T his book is dedicated to my dad, who believed in me and supported me the most while chasing my dreams and figuring out life.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Prologue
 
Chapter 1       Time for Change
Chapter 2       Emma’s Confusion
Chapter 3       Something is Wrong
Chapter 4       Down Memory Lane
Chapter 5       The Beginning of Something More
Chapter 6       Home Sweet Home
Chapter 7       Waiting on News
Chapter 8       An Unknown Presence
Chapter 9       Deterring Daily Life
Chapter 10     Puzzle Pieces
Chapter 11     Chasing Company
Chapter 12     Master Reset
Chapter 13     Knox
Chapter 14     The Farm
Chapter 15     Surprise Dinner Plans
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks is due to my mother who thought this was a hobby, your encouragement kept me going when I was ready to throw in the towel.
To my dearest friend Erika, who’s friendship inspired me to include her as a main character in my book, you are so loved. You are the inspiration behind this story’s relationships.
Then there is Josh, who helped this journey along by encouraging me to take time off my mundane 9-5 so I could focus on my writing. You saved this project financially and without you, we wouldn’t have a book to read.
I’d like to give a big thank you to my publishing team who worked hard to make this a shining gem!
Last and very much least I suppose I should thank my sorry excuse of an ex-husband. If it wasn’t for your horrible treatment and abuse, I would not have started writing to escape from you.
PROLOGUE
Nora is a blessed woman; she just doesn’t know it yet. She had a hard childhood, struggled for everything she ever had and always felt the outcast role suited her best. She kept to a life all her own, never letting anyone inside long enough to get attached. Nora never knew what love was. Well, she did but she forgot what love meant long ago. Deep down she nursed a broken heart from many years ago, the kind that never heals but you learn to cope with over time. She spent her time keeping herself busy with work and school. She volunteered during breaks from school to take up the time school usually filled. She didn’t party or go out; she doesn’t have any friends and she hasn’t had a family in a long time.
She never considered herself pretty, and she never accepted the compliments of a stranger. Faith in others was something she had lost long ago. She doesn’t believe for one minute that the compliment rolling off a stranger’s tongue is anything but another attempt to deceive her into doing their bidding. She isn’t insecure, she knows what she brings to the table. She just chooses to eat alone. She has always been her own security making her self-esteem nonexistent when it came to being strong enough to protect another soul.
Nora isn’t afraid of getting dirty, nor is she worried about pain. Given the chance to change her, it would be impossible to find anything to improve. What kind of man could possibly want a woman like her? The answer would surprise her if she would just listen to her heart.
Never in her life has she trusted her heart in the hands of a boy. Her daddy always said boys are a very destructive force of nature. Nothing good came out of associating with men and she was getting along well enough without one. She has everything any small-town woman could dream of…. Well kind of. She hated the city with all the traffic and violence, the unusual crime rate that came with a higher population was just not her style. Her roots are planted firmly in the red dirt roads back home, those roads her mind wanders to when she has had enough of the city.
One day she will make it back to her little, blink-and-you-miss-it, dot-on-a-road-map town. Law school has kept her away for far too long. Kept her away from the barn filled with the sound of horses chewing oats and straw, goats bleating softly, and the cat meowing at her feet looking for a token of affection. The barn that smelled of fresh cut straw mixed with the soft scent of pine wood chips at the bottom of each stall, the smell of wildflowers on a summer breeze as it blows through the open barn door. Even the feel of the barn was another world compared to that of the city in which she was stuck. The way the air clung to your skin on a hot summer day, soaking your clothes from the sweat, the feeling of comfort that comes with being close to nature but most importantly the feeling that this is where she makes a difference, in the lives of those who reside in that very barn, stall by stall, pin by pin.
Nora will eventually get the perfect marriage, with a little family on a hill overlooking the pastures full of her cattle. She just needs to open her heart and fix what she knows deep down is meant to be. She will find what she didn’t even know she needed when she returns home after many years and runs into the most gentle and handsome man she has ever met.

1
TIME FOR CHANGE
S itting in the darkness of a lonely room, she told herself it would be for the better. What did she have to lose? Here, she had no family, no home, she didn’t even consider these people friends. It truly changed nothing if she went through with her plan. She was convinced nobody would even notice, after all the only person who was ever there for her got married and moved away. As she made her final arrangements, she paused to reflect on her life thus far. A poor orphan who nobody has ever taken the time to love. A young girl who tried her best to fit in but was always cast aside. A young woman who worked hard to get somewhere in life only to have the door shut in her face.
To look at herself in the mirror, she saw nothing of value. After all, what did she have to offer? She has a flawed complexion, rarely wore make-up, and never did anything beautiful with her hair. She wasn’t tall by any means, standing at five and a half feet tall. It was common to see her in ripped jeans, a plain t-shirt, and some dirty boots. It was very apparent that she didn’t fit in here, but it was even more apparent that she gave up on caring. The boys never looked twice at her and the girls gave her the look of rotten garbage laying on the curb behind some washed up back-alley hotel known for prostitution and drug trafficking. It was clear that nobody understood her. She also knew that nobody here would ever take the time to try. Yes, this was it. Nobody would miss her when she was gone.
Time was running out and she needed to decide how to execute the plan she had spent the last weeks putting together. She needed to take that leap and do this, or she would never forgive herself. She looked at the half empty bottle of wine and recalled how she used to sit right there in that very room, with Emma, drinking their favorite wine and talking about life. But Emma was gone now. She was all alone in a world she never fit into. She wondered what she was doing, if she was making the right choice, and if there was a better choice out there. She wished deep down she had someone she could ask for help, wisdom, advice… anything at all to remove the doubts she was having about this plan. She had to do this, for her own good and happiness. She thought to herself that one more glass of wine to numb the pain was all she needed to carry out her plan, and she poured a glass.
She stared numbly at the pale liquid as she swirled it around her tumbler. It wasn’t an expensive wine, but the taste was pure. Light and crisp, not too sweet but, yet not bitter or dry. The wine fit her soul. She liked to think it was because she was the same on the inside. She had a unique sense of humor, and because of that it took special kinds of people to understand the sentiment behind her actions and words. It wasn’t that she was uncaring or unkind, she just showed her feelings and gratitude differently than others.
Looking around the apartment that had been her home the last three years she thought back to the way it looked only a few short weeks ago. The red leather couch her and Emma had bought from the local thrift store along the far wall next to the end stand with peeling white paint, the old 32” television sitting on the identical white end table propped on the opposite wall only feet from the front door, the shaggy tan carpet covered in