In Desperation Read Online Free PDF

this.”
    â€œIs this connected to the drug wars?”
    â€œMaybe. I’m not sure what this is. I have to check it out. If it falls through, I’ll be back in Juarez tonight. All I’m asking for is a little time, please.”
    â€œI’ll give you twenty-four hours and I want updates, Jack.”
    As Gannon’s cab wove through the east valley suburbs, doubt continued gnawing at him. Ever since he’d broken a global exclusive out of South America and the Caribbean a few months ago, senior WPA editors had been pressuring him to deliver another big story.
    So what was he doing here? Was he making a mistake by ignoring a potentially huge story out of Mexico?
    And for what?
    Cora.
    It was tearing him apart. His sister was a stranger to him. She was messed up when she’d run away from their family. It had devastated their parents. How could he forgive her for what she’d done?
    And now this.
    What if she was still messed up?
    But she had found him, now, after all this time. Something he’d buried deep and long ago warmed to that fact. And she had a daughter, his niece. How could he turn his back on them? They were family. That’s what he told himself as his cab turned down Cora’s street and cameto a creaky stop in front of her address. Gannon paid the driver, approached the house with his stomach tensing and rang the bell.
    Twenty-two years since he’d seen her .
    The door opened to a woman in her late thirties.
    Cora.
    The sun lit her face, made a bit fuller by time. The way the corners of her eyes creased reminded him of their mother and father. A bittersweet smile blossomed as she spoke his name.
    â€œOh, Jack!”
    She engulfed him on the step, nearly knocking him backward. She held him tight as she sobbed. Gannon felt something in his throat rising, his eyes stinging, for he never believed he would ever see her again.
    They went to her kitchen and in the brief awkward quiet punctuated by Cora’s tears, they studied each other. As her red-rimmed eyes took stock, Gannon felt as if he was twelve again, holding the attention of his hero.
    â€œI knew you would grow up to be a tall, handsome man.”
    She had become a fine-looking woman, a mother, he thought.
    â€œHelp me find Tilly.”
    â€œI’ll do what I can,” he said, absorbing all the changes in her as each of them grappled with the time that had blurred their memories over two decades.
    Cora offered a weak smile, worry lines cutting deep around her mouth, replacing the gleam that had always lifted him before the day she walked out on everything back in Buffalo. A tsunami of remembrance, outrage and regret rolled over him, and Cora saw his mood dim.
    â€œI’ve been a terrible sister.”
    â€œYou should have come home.”
    â€œI wanted to. So many times, but I couldn’t face you, Mom and Dad.”
    â€œThey died not knowing about your life, your daughter, their granddaughter.”
    She turned away.
    â€œI know. I saw it in the Sentinel on the internet.”
    â€œThen why didn’t you come to the funeral?”
    â€œI wanted to, but I couldn’t.”
    â€œWhy? If only you had come home before they were killed. You could have worked things out with them. They searched everywhere for you.”
    â€œI just couldn’t.”
    â€œWhy? That’s what I don’t understand.”
    â€œIt’s too hard to explain. Please don’t judge me.”
    â€œJudge you? Cora, I don’t even know you.”
    She turned to the counter for a tissue box.
    â€œI go by Cora Martin.”
    â€œMartin? Did you get married?”
    â€œNo, I changed it because of, well, because of mistakes.”
    â€œIs that why you didn’t want us to find you?” He shook his head in disappointment.
    â€œJack, it’s not easy to explain. You have every right to resent me,” she said. “I’m not seeking forgiveness, but resentment can be a