In Confidence
The irony of life is not lost on high school guidance counselor Rachel Forrester: while she is educating teens about good choices, her own life is spiraling out of control. First, she learns her husband is having an affair. Second, her aging mother collapses. And third, Cameron Ford is back in her life–again.As Rachel struggles to get her life in order, her fifteen-year-old son, Nick, forges a bond with the taciturn Cameron. Oddly, it is this bond that opens new doors of healing and promise for them all.And it's Cameron whom Nick trusts with a dangerous secret–a secret that may be connected to the death of Cameron's son, Jack, five years ago…a secret that could endanger them all.
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“Ted tells me I’m prissy and uptight, and that I should get over the incident between Francine and our daughter. He actually said he's nuts about Francine because, even though my IQ is higher, she’s fun to be with, she has big boobs and a nice butt and—get this—when they have sex, he feels he's died and gone to heaven.” She threw up her hands, then dropped them to her sides in bafflement. “All vestiges of sanity have disappeared from my life.”
“C’mere.” Before she realized his intent, Cam had his arms around her, enveloping her in sympathy and warm masculine strength. Instinct made her resist…but only for a heartbeat. She was still all worked up over the sheer unfairness of life at the moment, and the appeal of a friendly hug was simply too much to resist. Tears started in her eyes and she blinked furiously to hold them back. She sniffed.
“Without a doubt you have the higher IQ,” he told her softly.
She heard the smile in his voice and, turning her nose into his nice clean shirt, gave a shaky chuckle. “Ted said that, I didn't.”
“Because you would never boast about your IQ.”
“No, never.” Then, in a bewildered voice, she added, “But what good does having a high IQ do if you can’t keep a husband?”
“You would keep a decent one without even trying.”
Also by KAREN YOUNG
PRIVATE LIVES
FULL CIRCLE
GOOD GIRLS
Dear Reader,
If you have read any of my previous books, you’ll know that I invariably come up with stories of women just like you and me, women who are dealing with the problems of contemporary life.
My heroines face the ups and downs of courtship or marriage, the stresses of parenting and family crises, divorce…and just about anything else you can think of. And all the while, of course, they’re usually pursuing a career with its thorny challenges.
I almost always throw in something more to complicate my heroine’s already complicated life. Rachel Forrester, the woman I write about in In Confidence, is certainly besieged by a host of unexpected—and painful—changes in her life. Her marriage of seventeen years ends when she discovers her husband’s infidelity. As a high school guidance counselor, she isn't supposed to fail at this most basic relationship, so it is a struggle to handle such a deep personal betrayal and at the same time maintain a loving and secure environment for her children.
She is also conflicted by her attraction to a true-crime writer who lives next door, but he blames her for failing to anticipate his teenage son’s suicide five years earlier. But much worse is her growing suspicion that something evil exists in her world, something that threatens the very fabric of her life, something that has already taken one young victim.
So settle back and prepare yourself for a story I’ve written about a shocking secret in a small Texas town…but it could happen anywhere.
Karen Young
I love to hear from readers. Please write me at P. O. Box 450947, Houston, Texas 77245. Or visit my Web site at authorkarenyoung.com.
Contents
Prologue
Rose Hill, Texas
April 1998
Right on time, the door opened and the interview Rachel Forrester had dreaded all morning was at hand. She often faced trying situations, but this was surely the worst in her experience.
“Mr. Ford?” Rachel Forrester stood behind her desk, extending her hand in formal greeting to the father of the boy. “I’m terribly sorry for your loss. I liked Jack so much, everyone who knew him did. He was a fine boy and a gifted athlete. He will be sorely missed here at Rose Hill High.”
Cameron Ford grunted a reply and barely touched her palm before saying abruptly, “I have a few questions.”
“Won’t you please have a seat?” She gestured to the chair in front of her desk.
“I’ll stand.”
She nodded, bracing for a difficult interview. As she eased down on her chair, he swiped a hand over a face ravaged with grief, fatigue and sleep deprivation. He was a tall man of rangy build with dark brown hair and gray eyes hooded at the moment. He seemed to vibrate with energy, which probably explained how he carried not a spare ounce of flesh on him. His clothes were rumpled, as if he’d thrown them on without giving much thought to the way he’d look, or to any first impression he made. He wouldn’t have recalled seeing her at Jack’s funeral. In his shoes, she certainly wouldn’t, she thought.
“I’ll be glad to answer your questions as best I can,” she told him.
He looked directly at her then from eyes that burned with accusation. “Why didn’t you do your job with Jack?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’m telling you right up front that I think you dropped the ball with Jack. You’re a shrink, right? I was told by Preston Ramsey that, as his guidance counselor, you saw my son no less than six times this semester. What’s your job if it’s not to spot troubled kids and step in before they wind up—” He turned away and paced to the window, keeping his back to her. “I want to know what went on in those six sessions that you didn’t guess he was suicidal.”
