Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6)

BOOK: Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6)
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Battling Destiny

 

The Piper Anderson Series

Book 6

 

Danielle Stewart

Copyright Page

 

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictionally. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locals, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

 

 

An
Original
work of Danielle Stewart.

Battling Destiny
Copyright 2014 by Danielle Stewart

Books By Danielle Stewart

 

Piper Anderson Series:

Book 1:
Chasing Justice

Book 2:
Cutting Ties

Book 3:
Changing Fate

Book 4:
Finding Freedom

Book 5:
Settling Scores

Book 6: Battling Destiny

 

Piper Anderson Extras:

Choosing Christmas
- Holiday Novella - Chris & Sydney's Story

Betty's Journal
- Bonus Material(suggested to be read after Book 4 to avoid spoilers)

Saving Love
– A Piper Anderson Series Novella

 

 

The Clover Series:

Hearts of Clover
- Novella & Book 2:  (Half My Heart & Change My Heart)

Book 3:
All My Heart

Book 4:
Facing Home

 

 

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Table of Contents

 

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Epilogue

Books By Danielle Stewart

 

Dedication

 

To the mothers. My mother and all of the mothers of the world. For every hour of sleep you’ve given up, every tear you’ve shed, and stretch marks you wear. However a child has come into your life whether by birth or by you opening your heart to one who needs you, know that you are a hero. You have the power to shape a mind, warm a heart, and change a life.

 

Be someone’s Betty…

Synopsis

 

Michael Cooper has his life together. He is the successful lawyer all his friends turn to when they find themselves in trouble, and he and his beautiful wife just welcomed their newborn daughter to the world. In just under two years, he went from a cocky bachelor to a quintessential family man with a close-knit group of friends. Yes, Michael Cooper has his life together. Until the news that his father has died forces him to return to his hometown in Ohio.

 

Any feelings of grief and loss over his father are overshadowed by the idea of having to step back into a world he has spent years trying to forget. He knows, all too well, the reach of his mother's manipulation and the grip of his father's spiderweb like empire. It took everything he had to leave Ohio all those years ago and make a life for himself in Edenville, NC. Now, in the wake of his father's death, will he have the strength to leave it all behind again? Will Jules, the one woman who understands him the most, stand by him when the truth about his family comes to light? Can Michael battle the destiny that’s been thrust upon him and make his way back to the simple life he’s fought so hard to build?

 

Prologue

 

Growing up I never thought I’d be the kind of man who didn’t grieve his father’s death. But how can I
pay my respects
to a man who lost my respect years ago? Yet, no matter how little I feel for him, the same driving force that shaped most of my actions when I was younger somehow is overtaking me once more. The unwavering need to keep up appearances was drilled into me at an early age. That’s what my family has always been about. No matter how deep the secret or how ugly the truth, we’d polish ourselves up, put on our public faces, and pretend we had it all.

It’s why I continue to go through the motions even though I don’t feel an iota of sadness at the news of my father’s sudden passing. The only emotion I muster is annoyance. His death has taken me away from the life I love, from my wife and daughter. I’ve never missed anyone the way I miss them right now and every minute I’m gone I’m creating a rift that won’t be easy to repair. I’ve thrown my marriage into flux just to come to my birthplace to bury my father, and it makes me hate him even more.

I sling my small travel bag over my shoulder as I exit the airport and wave off the man offering to cart my luggage. I have no luggage because I’m not staying. I will not be here long enough to unpack. I’ll buy a suit, or wear one of the ten I’m sure my mother has had tailor-made for me. She’ll likely have that many because she doesn’t know my size, considering we haven’t seen each other in nearly seven years.

It would be easy for me to have a car service drive me to my parents’ house. They’d know the way. Everyone in this city knows where my parents live. Or I could have easily called my mother and had one of her drivers retrieve me from the airport, but on principle I go to the noisy curb and hail a cab. It’s a statement I’ll be making to my mother. I am not like my family anymore. I don’t need every flashy accessory or their lifestyle perks. I’m happy with simpler things. That’s where joy lives in this world, between the lines and underneath the flashy superficial. Life happens when you connect with people, not constantly working to be better or have more.

Leaving my wife and daughter without so much as a word to come out here is eating me alive. But I don’t regret it. Whether Jules ever forgives me or not, I know I made the right choice. I’m keeping them safe.

Chapter One

 

“I’ve known her half my life and she’s never gone this long without talking. I didn’t even think she was capable of the silent treatment,” Bobby whispered with a grimace but not quietly enough.

“This isn’t the silent treatment,” Jules interjected as she struggled to fasten Frankie’s diaper with one hand and grab a pacifier with the other hand. She’d already been feeling like things were too much for her and now she might have to start doing this alone. It was great timing, she supposed, as she imagined her life as a single mother. Maybe that was being dramatic but she couldn’t help it. “I have nothing to say. There is a difference.”

“You always have something to say. It’s genetic.” Bobby tentatively stepped across Betty’s sitting room and took a seat next to Jules as she laid Frankie down on her play mat on the floor. The rhythmic humming of the mat’s music had comforted Jules as many times as it had driven her nearly to the brink of insanity. Much like Michael.

“What is there to say? Michael is gone. One phone call and he’s gone. It’s not like I’m stupid. I can see the writing on the wall. It’s my own fault really.” Jules knew this would draw the disagreement of everyone in the room, but she didn’t care. Since Bobby had told her Michael had left, she’d spent every second trying to understand what had happened. How it happened. But now she knew.

“Don’t say that, Jules,” Piper insisted, the first to try to make her feel better about the disastrous situation. “You don’t really know what’s going on. None of us do.”

“You’re making my point for me.” Jules slipped her hands into the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt and pulled her legs up as she curled into the corner of the couch. “I don’t know what’s going on with my own husband and that’s my fault. I realized something wasn’t right with Michael’s relationship with his family, but I ignored that. I never asked a single question. Shouldn’t I have pushed the topic, demanded to know why I hadn’t met his parents and sister? Why they hadn’t come to meet Frankie, for goodness sake? What do any of us really know about Michael? Next to nothing. I tried to pretend everything was fine, and I got what I deserved for that complacency. Now his father is dead, and he takes off for Ohio as though I don’t even exist. I might come from a simple place but I’m not a simple person. I’m no fool.”

“You need to trust him.” The demand in Bobby’s voice felt like a prickly cactus running across Jules’s already too fragile emotional state.

“The only thing I need to do is take care of Frankie and get my life back together without Michael. I was foolish to think this was what he really wanted in his life. I’m sure if it weren’t for the baby he’d have left months ago. How could a man like him ever settle for this?” Jules motioned around the tiny room as though nothing in it would be worthy of Michael’s standards.

“Jules, Michael loves you and Frankie more than anything in this world. I don’t know why he left like he did without saying anything to you. Maybe he was distraught. He just lost his dad.” Piper’s overly soft voice was as grating as Bobby’s insistent one.

“Do not make excuses for him. There is nothing that makes leaving like that acceptable. It’s been three full days, and I haven’t heard a word from him. Not a single word. Message received. It’s time for me to pick up the pieces and realize Michael has something in Ohio I know nothing about and I have no interest in finding out what it is.”

“Oh please,” Bobby huffed with a roll of his eyes. “You can act as tough as you want, but we all know you’re going to hunt him down and demand answers. That’s how you work. You aren’t going to just sit here and wait.”

“You’re damn right I’m not going to sit here and wait. I’m going to get on with my life and figure out what the hell we’re going to do. I’m going to pack our stuff at Michael’s apartment and move Frankie and me back in here. I’ll get a job and take care of my child.”

“No you won’t,” Bobby scoffed, and his arrogance pushed Jules to want to strike him across the face just to get a reprieve from his words. “I’ve known you a long time. I know you can’t help yourself. You’re going to go kick in doors until you get answers. You fight for what you want.”

“Bobby, you knew me as a child. I’m not a child anymore. I’m a mother, and that changes everything. She is the only thing in my life that matters now.” Jules gestured down at the crystal blue eyes of her daughter that were mirror images of Michael’s, and it tore at her heart. “I will not act like a petulant child or a scorned woman. I’m a mother. I’m her mother. That’s the only way I’ll act. Michael made his choice to take off, and I made my choice to ignore the truth right in front of me. I can’t change either of those things. But I can choose what I do next.”

“You’re going to find that man,” Betty said flatly as she stepped into the doorway of the sitting room and folded her arms across her chest in that way that punctuated an argument.

“Ma, please don’t. You of all people should understand what it means to put your child first. I’m not leaving her here just so I can go chase someone who clearly doesn’t want me there.”

“Did you want Michael to come after you when you took off like a mad woman to New York with Piper?”

“This is different.”

“Yes it is, but don’t leapfrog yourself here, child. Don’t jump to the conclusion that Michael doesn’t need you. I don’t know his reasons and I don’t agree with the way he did it, but I’ve had a good look at his heart and it’s not capable of the things spinning in your head right now. If you’re worried about your daughter and you’re trying to give her the best life possible then go find her daddy and help him. Because I believe he needs you, even if he thinks he doesn’t. “

BOOK: Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6)
2.37Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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