Getting to know Maddie

The first draft of The (Un)Forgiving Wife is done (and the crowd goes wild!).

It's time to set Juliette aside for a week or so to clear my mind and come back fresh to edit. I love Juliette, her strength and dignity. She definitely deserves the three happily ever afters for you to choose from.

I'm so excited to move to the first of THREE military romance novels. You wanted more of Darby (cameo in Never Second Best) and I can't wait for him to put that body and those military skills to good use.

Now, you are the first to get to know Maddie. First draft, but what do you think ...

“You have to leave that bloody room sometime,” Maddie’s mum yelled through the door.

Maddie ignored her, knowing she would eventually go away.

No, she didn’t want to see her brother at the airport, or even drop in to welcome him home.

No, she didn’t want to go out for dinner with her parents, or go grocery shopping, or get her hair cut or have a pampering afternoon with her mother at the salon.

Maybe if things had turned out differently, but they were what they were. She left the house to meet the Constable Blackshaw at the station, thinking they would want her to go through her statement again.

No, there wasn’t enough evidence.

No, while the Constable believed her, there was insufficient evidence to charge him because there was insufficient bloody evidence to make a charge stick.

No, they didn’t need to keep her clothes or any of the other items in the plastic bag they held as evidence. She could have the denim dress and white jacket. The Constable even tried to joke that the grass stains could come out with drycleaning.

Stupid bitch, didn’t have a clue and couldn’t pull her foot out of her mouth quickly enough.

So, no, dearest mother and dearest world, she didn’t want to leave her bedroom. It was too soon and the wor

ld was just too suckworthly. A far better use of her time was lying on her bed and muffling the tears with her pillow. No one knew, and those who did, couldn’t help her prove it.

It wasn’t fair, her body cried. Not bloody fair at all, her life had changed in an instant and while she couldn’t go back to the person she was, he could walk around as if nothing happened. Because as far as the police and the courts and everyone in town was concerned, nothing happened.

Maddie got up to triple check the locks on her bedroom windows and went through her new routine, baseball bat next to her bed, a small sharp knife under her pillow. Not enough to make her fears go away, but most nights she could get a couple of hours sleep.

No, it wasn’t fair that her brother could go off to save the world, but no one was here to save her.