The Chocolatier's Secret (Magnolia Creek, Book 2) Read Free Page A

of five minutes. She wasn’t invited inside the home. She was kept on the doorstep, as though her presence would alter everything if she stepped over the threshold, and her birth mother told her she couldn’t do this. Molly had asked about her birth father but was told nothing, only that the memories were too painful. Her birth mother begged her over and over not to come again until Molly had turned, covered her ears like a small child and run away crying down the street, only stopping when she was so out of breath she couldn’t go on any longer.
    And to this day, Molly hadn’t contacted her birth mother again.  

Chapter Three
    Andrew
     
     
    Andrew ran a hand through his dark hair that had faded over the years since he’d met Julia Mason. It was flecked with grey now, and he knew one day he’d look exactly like his father, his silver hair masking any trace of the colour it had been before.
    He heard laughter coming from downstairs, laughter from Gemma and Louis as though they’d known one another all their lives. It warmed him to hear Gemma happy though, if only for a moment. There hadn’t been much time for that lately, and since Julia’s message half an hour ago in reply to his, all Andrew had been able to do was sit on the edge of the bed and stare at the curtains blowing in the breeze from the open window. He’d shut the computer down and run away from it since the brief exchange over Facebook messenger, as though the machine would spill out more secrets if he didn’t get away from it right now. Their exchange had been short and to the point but no less weighty in its content, and since then he’d shunted between anger, disbelief and sadness. He was so confused. He had no idea how to feel.
    How the hell was he going to explain any of this to his wife? Should he tell her? Should he simply ignore it and carry on with his life as though he hadn’t made the shocking discovery?
    Thirty-one years ago, two loved-up teenagers had the world at their feet, together, or so they’d thought. And then, all of a sudden, Julia had stopped phoning and she never came to his house again. Julia Mason had ceased all contact with Andrew Bennett and until this day, he’d never understood why. It wasn’t as though Andrew hadn’t moved on, of course he had. He hadn’t thought about Julia in years until he and Gemma had started trying for a baby and the significance of past events plagued his thoughts and his dreams at night.
    Andrew heard Gemma’s footsteps as she trotted up the stairs, and he bent down to pull off his socks. When he looked up, Gemma was standing at the door, glass of wine in hand. Her blonde hair and tanned skin captured the beautiful girl he’d fallen in love with from the first moment they met.
    ‘The chicken pasta bake is cooking,’ she said. ‘Dinner in an hour?’
    He held out his hand and she walked over to him. ‘Come here, you.’ His hands on her hips, he pulled her into him gently and rested his head against her chest. She was the anchor in his world right now when everything else, including his feelings, seemed to have been set adrift.
    Gemma laughed in an attempt not to spill the red wine all over the cream rug on the bedroom floor. She ran her hand through his hair. He couldn’t help but grin. She’d always liked his hair. ‘Your dad’s downstairs,’ she admonished.
    ‘I wasn’t suggesting we do anything.’ He reached up and cupped her cheek and looked into baby blue eyes as he ran a thumb across her bottom lip. He was sure his marriage was solid, but right now he didn’t know whether Gemma was strong enough to know the details of Julia’s message. He was still trying to make sense of it himself, and his wife was in a world of hurt from the most recent miscarriage and each one that had come before. He could see it in her eyes, in the way she acted as though everything was fine when it was anything but.
    He stood, took Gemma’s hand, and her smile was back as he led her