Release Date: February 3rd, 2014
Description:
A marriage on the rocks.
Their little daughter caught in between.
And a woman who will stop at nothing.
Sylvia and Tommy Garland and their five-year-old daughter Grace have moved from the bright lights of New York City to the peaceful wilderness of the Wyoming countryside. But with the recession on their heels, Tommy leaves for LA for a job interview, and Ruth, an old friend of Sylvia's comes to stay.
In an unexpected turn of events, a family tragedy forces Sylvia to leave Ruth in charge of little Grace for just one day.
A decision that will tear their lives apart.
Stolen Grace is a roller coaster of emotions with twists and turns, a tale of lies and deception, of redemption and forgiveness.
And ultimately, a love story.
And ultimately, a love story.
EXCERPT
Sylvia glanced at Tommy again. Grace’s painting of Mrs. Paws, the neighbor’s white cat, was just to the right of him, stuck on the fridge door with a magnet. A reminder. What the hell had he being playing at, jeopardizing their family life, risking losing her and Grace? Temptation by way of Facebook, the modern-day Jezebel?
Ugh! She turned her eyes again to the window to hide her resentment. That time-wasting Internet addiction. The thief that was swamping people’s lives, robbing people of their creativity. Robbing relationships. There were some people with a thousand so called ‘friends’ usurping tangible, flesh-and-blood friends. Real feelings. Touch, smell, humanity. The cyber world was making children insensitive (all those violent video games), and husbands and wives unfaithful. Her old school friend Bob, for instance, who just a month before, had been dumped like a hot brick. His wife had reunited with an old flame from college. With a click of a button, she fell in love all over again, leaving her husband an empty, bitter man, fighting to see his children.
Sylvia’s internal ramblings pattered on in her head. Love like fast food. Want to find an ex? Type his name in the Facebook search bar. Want to hook up with that pretty girl you saw at a party? Bingo, there she is. Ask her out, why don’t you? You could even find her on Twitter. Easy, no phone call necessary. Just send a message. Tweet, tweet.
She forced herself to stop her internal rant. “So it’s a fashion shoot, you told me?” she asked with a faint smile. “Do you know who the models are?”
“Not really.”
“Not really? What’s with the ‘really’?” She turned back to the window. She didn’t want to see Deceit, with a capital D, on her husband’s face, but still, she couldn’t drop the conversation.
“Well, I got sent a couple of photos of some girls but nobody’s been chosen yet.”
“Who chooses? You or the magazine?”
“Both, I suppose.”
“So she isn’t part and part of the parcel, then? Or is this whole trip an excuse to see her?”
There, she said it.
He let out an exasperated groan, walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. “Of course not. This is a photography job—they need a model for a clothing line. It has nothing to do with her, she’s an actress.”
“No, she isn’t.” Sylvia wanted to add that the girl was a wannabe actress, that she’d never had a professional acting job. Not even been to drama school. A wannabe actress who fancied herself as a model, posting photo after photo of herself on Facebook, so men could drool over her. But she and Tommy had been through that tired argument already, so Sylvia held the tip of her tongue between her teeth to stop herself from lashing out.
As if reading her thoughts, Tommy mumbled, “Give the girl a break; she’s embarking on her career, she’s only twenty years old.”
The sting. Young. Fresh. Desirable. Could practically be her daughter.
“Exactly. Only twenty. A baby. Didn’t that make you feel odd, Tommy, and old, to be obsessing about a twenty year-old? You do realize that she’s a female, don’t you? Right now, all she has to worry about is which pair of heels she has to wear, or what make- up, because she’s only twenty, for Christ’s sake. If you actually started having a relationship−” Tommy banged his fist on the table. His empty beer bottle toppled onto its side, rolled to the edge, but he caught it before it smashed to the floor.
About the author:
Arianne Richmonde is an American writer and artist who spent her formative years in both Britain and the US. She has also lived in Spain and France. She has traveled to many corners of the globe and meeting people from all walks of life and different countries is a passion of hers. She speaks fluent Spanish and French. She lives in France in an old stone farmhouse amidst sunflower fields and vineyards, with her husband and coterie of animals.
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