Letter from a Stranger

Letter from a Stranger Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Letter from a Stranger Read Online Free PDF
Author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
Richard had turned out to be wholesome, loving, and relatively normal adults. Certainly they were well grounded.
    Tony Nolan had taught them about ethics and integrity, given them a sense of honor. “Being truthful” was a phrase never far from his lips. Yes, he had been a truly good man and a wonderful father, and his values had been of sterling quality.
    Quite unexpectedly, more than two decades fell away, and Justine saw him in her mind’s eye on the day Pearl, Tita, and their mother, Estrelita, had arrived at the house. He had hired Estrelita, a Chilean, to be the housekeeper at Indian Ridge, because their mother, Deborah, was always away on decorating business.
    To Justine’s father’s surprise and dismay Estrelita had brought along her daughters, who had just arrived from Chile. She remembered how her father hadn’t had the heart to send the two girls back to Estrelita’s family in Chile, and so he had allowed them to stay. But he had hired an immigration lawyer at once, had undertaken to sponsor them. It helped that Estrelita had worked in New York for some years and had a green card, and matters had proceeded smoothly.
    “My God, twenty-two years ago,” she muttered under her breath. She and Richard had been ten years old, Pearl eighteen, Tita sixteen.
    Because their father had allowed the girls to stay, they fully understood they must help their mother in the house, and they had done so. But Pearl and Tita had longed to cook because they loved food, and it was her father who had taught them.
    Justine closed her eyes, lost in sudden memories of her childhood, and saw them as they were all those years ago. She heard her father’s booming laughter, the girls giggling, and Richard joining in the banter and the fun.
    She had been troubled at that time because of her mother’s continuing absences … taken away from them by her work. Suddenly Justine now understood how much she had resented that in those days.
    Rousing herself from her thoughts, sitting up straighter in the desk chair, Justine opened her eyes. And yet Pearl and Tita were still there, dancing around in her head … how devoted and loyal the two of them had been and still were.
    They had stayed on after Estrelita had been taken seriously ill and had died here at Indian Ridge. The old house had become their beloved home over the years, just as it was her brother’s and hers.
    Pearl had been married at the local church fourteen years ago and her father had given Pearl away; Justine and Tita had been bridesmaids. Pearl had married her third cousin, Carlos Gonzales, who had come to visit Pearl and Tita from Miami, and had never left. Tony Nolan had given him a job as a gardener and carpenter; and after Carlos had married Pearl, his father had come from Miami to live with them, and help out at Indian Ridge. Like his son, Ricardo was a hard worker and a talented carpenter.
    As she looked back, Justine realized that her mother had never really been part of their childhood at Indian Ridge, although her grandmother had. Deborah Nolan had always been aloof, remote, and had somehow managed to stand outside their joyousness over the years.… In a certain sense, she had been like a stranger looking in.
    What had made her mother tell that horrendous lie ten years ago? She had ruined Gabriele’s life, certainly caused her heartache. And she had caused them unnecessary grief. Only a monster would do something like that, something so cruel. Evil. What her mother had done was evil.
    Her cell phone rang. She picked it up, put it to her ear.
    “It’s me. Jo.”
    “Hi. Where are you?”
    “I just arrived from New York. When did you get here, Juju?”
    “Early this afternoon. Any chance you can come to dinner with me and Rich? We need to pick your brains, quite aside of wanting to see you.”
    “I can. Delia will give Simon his supper. What do you want to pick my brains about?”
    “ Istanbul. I have to go there for work. I need some introductions, your best
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Brides of Texas

Cathy Marie Hake

Hiroshima

Nakazawa Keiji

Assassin's Heart

Monica Burns

A Night to Remember

Adrienne Basso

Being Hartley

Allison Rushby

To Tame a Renegade

Connie Mason

Eleven

Karen Rodgers

Part of Me

A.C. Arthur