eyes, thin lips pressed together with deep grooves furrowing above her upper lip. Dull gray short hair, choppy, as if it had been cropped with blunt scissors, the ends uneven. In one of the photos, she smiled, showing protruding teeth yellowed from years of nicotine. Using her thumb and index fingers to enlarge the picture, Anna saw old acne scars and knew this was not Laura Jones. She closed the window, brought up the search engine, typing in her name, then hit PHOTOS. Almost 2 million hits according to the info displayed on her screen. She scrolled through several of the blue hyperlinks and clicked on the first page. Yet none of the Laura Joneses she saw matched the face in the photographs.
Anna pulled the Facebook pictures back up. In all, there were seven, each a different pose but with the same background, the same pale pink blouse. If this were a joke, someone had gone to great lengths. She recognized the Sun ’N Fun home and garden show, the charity fund-raiser she herself had been at earlier that night. It raised money for Habitat for Humanity, an organization near and dear to her heart. An auction open to the public. Laura Jones had obviously also attended it, given the background in the photos. Anna tried to recall if she’d seen her, or possibly spoken to her. Almost three thousand people had attended, and while she knew it was impossible for her to have spoken with that many people one-on-one, those whom she did speak to usually left an impression on her one way or another.
Searching her memory, she guessed she’d spoken to thirty or forty people, mostly women, but there had been a few men. She would have remembered if one in particular stood out. If they had, she would have mentioned it to Mandy during the drive on the way home, as they’d had a short chat. They’d gotten into this habit a few weeks after the accident.
Her days were long and the nights sometimes longer when Christina had one of her rough nights dealing with being cooped up in the den for so long. Though they weren’t as frequent as they’d been after the accident, she still had them once in a while. Long gone were the days when Christina would spend the evenings by herself in her room, reading Harry Potter books and texting with her best friend, Tiffany. It absolutely enraged Anna when she thought about what had happened. She wanted to kill the son of a bitch who had done this to her, but she knew these were idle daydreams and nothing more. Even so, there were many nights when she would lie awake plotting ways to rid the world of the evil it contained.
The woman in the photographs had not been the topic of any late-night discussion. Only once had her name come up during the time she had a relationship with Ryan, if you wanted to call it that. Anna had expressed sympathy over the tragedy, then moved on. She knew from personal experience that life wasn’t always fair or kind. When life bombarded one with bushels of lemons, Anna knew that with perseverance, often the sweetest of lemonades resulted. Her life was testimony to that.
Ten years into her first marriage, her husband, Wade, had died in a motorcycle accident on his way home from Woodworks, the furniture store in Corpus Christi where he’d built and sold custom-made furniture for yachts and boats. A lifelong dream, shattered in seconds on a wet, slick road. After months of wallowing in the dark depths of despair, Anna had had no other choice but to pull herself out of her grief-induced depression and find a way to provide for her daughter. Without Wade, there was no furniture store, no income. With a degree in marketing, and little experience, she’d started a vlog about grief, which became an immediate success. When she began vlogging full-time, it had afforded her many sponsors and provided her a decent income. After two years, she’d branched out into cooking, and more lifestyle vlogs, and again, her ideas were so well received, she’d zoomed straight to the top of the vlogging world, her recipes and decorating videos reaching viewers across the globe. She’d been a guest on all the national morning shows, the cooking networks, and a few of the late-night talk shows. And more often than not, she was recognized in public, which to this day still surprised her. Once she became financially successful, she sold the home she and Wade had purchased in Corpus Christi and built a new, modern, upscale home in Lubbock, complete with her own recording studio. She hired a film crew, an editor, and found a manager to direct The Simple Life’s future. After years of long days and late nights, she was pleased with her success, her ability to provide for Christina and give her the best life possible.
Why now? she thought. How many more lies was she going to uncover?
Part One
Chapter 1
Before
“Mandy, you know I can’t leave Christina. She’s only thirteen,” Anna said to her best friend and assistant.
“Yes, you can. I’m quite capable of caring for a thirteen-year-old, I’ll have you know. This cruise is just what you need. It’ll be fun. Just because it’s a singles cruise doesn’t mean you’re going to find a significant other just like that.”
Anna laughed. “I think that’s exactly what it means. You can’t put thousands of single people together, on a singles-only cruise ship, and not have expectations. It sounds fun, but it’s not really my cup of tea.”
“You’ve never even been on a cruise,” Mandy teased. “You might surprise yourself and actually enjoy being waited on hand and foot. Meeting new friends is simply a bonus.”
“Then why don’t you go?” Anna asked.
“Because someone has to keep you organized, and besides, I’m dating Eric exclusively now.”
“Hmmm, and when did this happen? I thought he was just a guy from the gym.” Mandy Martin was a total babe; she attracted men like bees to honey. At thirty-five, she’d never married and loved the single life. Anna was lucky to have her on her team. Tall, blond, and buxom were three words to describe her. Add in kind, smart, and a huge heart, and this was who Mandy was.
“He was. At first. That’s what happens, Anna. You date, you find out you’re compatible, then boom, you sort of commit to date one another. Easy peasy.”
“Does this mean what I think it means, or am I being old-fashioned?”
“Probably not. It means we’re going to see what happens. When you’re dating five or six guys at once, it’s time-consuming. Not so easy getting to know any of them, you know?” Mandy said.
“No, I wouldn’t know from personal experience, but I get the picture,” said Anna. “I would feel completely out of place, not knowing anyone.”
“My point exactly! You’d be in the same boat, literally, as the other guests. You mingle, you see someone who interests you, say hi, ask his name. Say something cutesy, or you could go the traditional route and just introduce yourself. Whatever works. It’s the perfect solution for you.”
Anna thought her life was as close to perfect as one could get, given her circumstances. Being a single parent had its moments though she’d been lucky so far. Anna adored Christina and knew her daughter felt the same way about her. At thirteen, she was tall, like Wade, who’d been six-four. Christina was five-eight already, but that’s where the similarities ended. Minus her height, she was a carbon copy of Anna. With her reddish brown hair, aqua-blue eyes, full lips, and olive skin, Anna often thought of her as a mini version of herself. They laughed about this, Anna telling her at least she would know what she might look like when she was her age. At forty-one, she hadn’t aged too much; but she knew that in this age of fillers, plumpers, and sunscreen, Christina’s generation would age exceptionally well if they took care of themselves while they were young. Living in Texas, sunscreen was a necessity. She had used it most of her adult life and insisted that her daughter do the same.
“So, you’ll go?” Mandy interrupted her thoughts.
Sighing,
