Everything to Gain and a Secret Affair (62 page)
Read Everything to Gain and a Secret Affair Online
Authors: Barbara Taylor Bradford
Finally she opened the envelope and took out the letter.
Beirut
Monday, March 25th, 1996
My very dearest Vanessa:
I know I'll be seeing you in a few days, holding you in my arms, but I have such a need to talk to you, to reach out to you tonight, I decided to write to you. Of course you'll be reading this letter when I'm there with you in Venice, since I'll be bringing it with me.
The next few lines blurred as her eyes filled with tears, but after a few moments she managed to recover, and went on reading.
I don't think I've ever really told you how much I love you, Vanessa
â
with all my heart and soul and mind. You're rarely out of my thoughts and all I want is to make you happy. You've brought me back to life, given new meaning to my life. And now I want to share that life with you. You will, won't you, darling?
You will be my wife and as soon as that's possible?
In my heart I can hear you say yes, yes, yes in that excited way you have. And
I
promise you I'll love and cherish you always. You know what, let's make a baby in Venice. I know how much you want a child. And I want it to be mine. I want to know that part of me is growing inside you. So let's do it this weekend, let's make a baby.
I've never told you this before, but in the last six years my life has been hellish. Three people I loved very much died on me. First Sylvie, then my father, and finally my grandmother. Their deaths broke my heart.
But over the past few months I've come to understand that the heart broken is the strongest heart.
Bill
Vanessa sat there for a long time, holding the letter. And then she folded it carefully, put it back in the envelope, and rising, she walked slowly across the dunes and into the cottage.
RAISE
FOR
A S
ECRET
A
FFAIR
“Barbara Taylor Bradford can be counted on to tell a good story, and she does in
A Secret Affair. . . .
Sweet, sad, and sure to please.”
Chattanooga Times
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
Bestselling author
BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD
was born in Leeds, and was a journalist in Yorkshire and Fleet Street before moving to New York, where she lives with her husband. She is published in eighty-two countries and twenty-four languages, and several of her books have become hugely successful television series.
www.barbarataylorbradford.com
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RAISE
New York Times
bestselling author
BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD
“She's the envy of all of us who put pen to paper. Don't miss her.”
Greensboro News & Record
“Her name on a novel . . . [promises] a good story, simply told, with a satisfying outcome . . . [her books] finding their way into people's homes and hearts.”
Dayton Daily News
LSO BY
B
ARBARA
T
AYLOR
B
RADFORD
A W
OMAN OF
S
UBSTANCE
V
OICE OF THE
H
EART
H
OLD THE
D
REAM
A
CT OF
W
ILL
T
O
B
E THE
B
EST
L
OST IN
A
NOTHER
T
OWN
OPYRIGHT
Everything To Gain
was originally published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1994 and in mass market by HarperTorch in 1995; a special edition was published by HarperCollins in 1996.
A Secret Affair
was originally published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1996 and in mass market by HarperTorch in 1997.
E
VERYTHING TO GAIN
. Copyright © 1994 by Barbara Taylor Bradford.
A Secret Affair
copyright © 1996 by Barbara Taylor Bradford. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-112160-9
ISBN-10: 0-06-112160-6
EPub Edition August 2013 ISBN 9780062312624
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RRD
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BOUT THE
P
UBLISHER