Hope Returns Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  About the Author

  Coming Soon

  Title Page

  Hope Returns

  a novel

  dorey whittaker

  Copyright

  Copyright© 2014, by Dorey Whittaker

  Hope Returns

  Dorey Whittaker

  [email protected]

  www.doreywhittakerbooks.com

  Published 2014, by Light Messages

  www.lightmessages.com

  Durham, NC 27713 USA

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61153-093-3

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61153-094-0

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 International Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  NOTE: All names, companies, cities and events in this novel are fiction. Any similarity to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Dedication

  This novel is dedicated to every Lisa in this world.

  No matter how damaged you are, you need to know that God always allows “Do-Overs.” His love and forgiveness is not just intended for all the ‘others’ in this world – He would have come just for you because

  He knows you are worth saving.

  This novel is also dedicated to my loyal readers. Your love for the characters of Wall of Silence inspired me to continue this literary journey.

  Prologue

  The Georgia Observer

  Serving the citizens of Jefferson, Georgia for over 100 Years

  LISA MILLER FOUND NOT GUILTY OF MURDER

  Thursday, July 18, 1985 – Jefferson, Georgia. In a stunning turn of events yesterday, Lisa Miller was found not guilty of murdering her father, Charles Miller. The courthouse was shocked when Ms. Miller’s attorney, Randall Duncan, called a surprise witness to the stand. Ms. Hope Winslow, a resident of Culver City, California, confessed that she was in Bascom’s Bakery with her biological mother, Lisa Miller, the night Charles Miller burst into the bakery kitchen. Unaware of his connection to her at the time, Ms. Winslow told the court how this intruder displayed a handgun and announced his intention to kill them both.

  Ms. Winslow testified that Lisa Miller grabbed a copper pot and threw it at the intruder, causing him to drop his gun. As he bent down to pick it up, Ms. Winslow said she made a run for the back door, but the intruder caught up with her just as she exited into the back alley. She said he slammed her against the alley wall, pinning her against the building with one hand on her throat and the other hand pressing his gun into her chest.

  She proudly told the jury how her mother bravely wedged herself between her and her attacker. Using her own body, Ms. Miller forced the intruder to release his grip on Ms. Winslow’s throat as Ms. Miller and the intruder fought to gain control of the gun. Once free of him, Ms. Winslow said she ran back into the bakery and grabbed the first object she could find, a wooden rolling pin, and returned to the alley.

  Her testimony was emotional as she described how her mother’s face was turning blue as she struggled to get the gun away from the intruder. He had his forearm wedged against her mother’s throat and Ms. Winslow knew if her mother lost consciousness he would control the gun and they both would be killed. Fearing for her life, Ms. Winslow confessed it was she who took the rolling pin and struck the fatal blow to the back of Charles Miller’s head just as the gun went off.

  Once the jury came back with a not guilty verdict, it was expected that Judge Kirkley would order Hope Winslow taken into custody at the close of court yesterday, since, by her own testimony, Ms. Winslow left the scene of a murder—self-defense or not. As of today’s deadline, no warrant has been issued.

  ***

  The Georgia Observer

  Serving the citizens of Jefferson, Georgia for over 100 Years

  LISA MILLER REFUSES ALL INTERVIEWS

  Saturday, July 20, 1985 – Jefferson, Georgia. Although thankful for her acquittal, Lisa Miller refused to comment on any possible legal problems that her daughter might be facing as a result of her leaving the scene of the crime. Finding Ms. Miller at the home of Gladys Carter, her longtime friend and the person she credits for getting her off drugs eleven years ago, she was asked why she covered up for her daughter since it was obviously self-defense. Ms. Miller’s only response was, “I made a huge mistake. My daughter came forward on her own once she found out about the trial. I just pray that everyone involved will keep the promises that have been made to her.”

  Several attempts have been made to find out what these promises are and who authorized them. One unnamed source within the courthouse quietly warned, “Heads will roll, and that right soon.”

  Judge Kirkley also refused an interview, stating, “You need to allow the court time to confirm some questionable legal issues. This community has endured enough witch-hunts over the past five months.”

  ***

  The Georgia Observer

  Serving the citizens of Jefferson, Georgia for over 100 Years

  PROSECUTOR GORDON TO BE CALLED

  BEFORE ETHICS BOARD

  Monday, July 22, 1985 – Jefferson, Georgia. This morning, Judge Kirkley officially filed a “Cause of Action” with the State Board of Review against Prosecutor Jeffery Gordon. Details of this action have not yet been made public. Within the hour District Attorney Samuel Crane placed Gordon on administrative leave in order to allow him time to answer these charges. A hearing has been scheduled for two weeks from today.

  Gordon has been campaigning for the soon to be vacant position of District Attorney for Jefferson, Georgia. Some have speculated this is why Prosecutor Gordon pushed so hard to bring Lisa Miller to trial so quickly.

  ***

  The Georgia Observer

  Serving the citizens of Jefferson, Georgia for over 100 Years

  GORDON WITHDRAWS FROM D.A. RACE

  Thursday, July 25, 1985 – Jefferson, Georgia. Soon after learning that Judge Kirkley had filed a complaint with the State Ethics Board against Prosecutor Gordon, four of Gordon’s most ardent supporters withdrew their financial support. These supporters swiftly moved to distance themselves from Gordon. Although no one is talking about the details, one unnamed source told this reporter that Gordon knew about Hope Winslow several weeks before she came forward.

  Hope Winslow has refused all calls, referring everyone to her attorney, Randall Duncan, of Jefferson, Georgia. Mr. Duncan’s only public statement is, “I will reserve all comments until these charges have been adjudicated before the State Board of Ethical Review.”

  ***

  The Georgia Observer

  Serving the citizens of Jefferson, Georgia for over 100 Years

  ETHICS REVIEW BOARD MEETS

  BEHIND CLOSED D
OORS

  Tuesday, August 6, 1985 – Atlanta, Georgia. Prosecutor Gordon’s attorneys argued yesterday that all charges against their client remain confidential until the State Board has determined there is sufficient evidence to officially charge their client, Jeffery Gordon. The Board granted this request but warned that all depositions must be completed within one month. No names were divulged, nor were the details of these charges.

  After returning to Jefferson yesterday afternoon, this reporter questioned several citizens about the Board’s actions today. The consensus agreed with Michael Buchannan, long-time resident of Jefferson, “I find it interesting that Mr. Gordon’s right to privacy is honored, but when he was going after Lisa Miller there were dozens of stories in the newspaper about her criminal past. By the time her trial began everyone in town was convinced of her guilt. I guess you have to be one of them to get a fair shake at justice in this town.”

  ***

  The Georgia Observer

  Serving the citizens of Jefferson, Georgia for over 100 Years

  ONE MONTH AFTER NOT GUILTY VERDICT

  Monday, August 19, 1985 – Jefferson, Georgia. While the citizens of Jefferson wait for news of criminal charges against Prosecutor Gordon, Lisa Miller decides it is time to get back among the living. Having taken an additional month to recuperate from the strain of her murder trial, Bascom’s Bakery, where Lisa Miller has been gainfully employed for the past eleven years, will again benefit from Ms. Miller’s excellent pastry skills.

  Although still refusing any interviews, we wish Ms. Miller all the best and publicly apologize for having allowed certain parties to use this local paper for their own personal ambition. Although this newspaper never slandered Ms. Miller, we recognize the personal burden we placed upon her by dredging up her scandalous past without acknowledging her eleven years of recovery.

  One month of Letters to the Editor showed this newspaper that our coverage of the Miller trial has caused our readers to feel misled. This newspaper promises our readership audience to be more careful and balanced in covering future stories. Integrity and trust must be the hallmark of a free and open press.

  Chapter 1

  It was three o’clock in the morning and, as usual, Lisa Miller could not sleep. The amber glow of her clock radio cast gloomy shadows in her bedroom. These shadows danced across the ceiling, changing shape whenever the clock updated the time. The reflection of the time and date being projected upon her ceiling had become an interesting metaphor of her life over the past five months. Watching the date blinking on the ceiling, Lisa pondered to herself, “Has it really been only one month since I was found not guilty of murdering my father?”

  Frustrated at not being able to sleep, Lisa made the mistake of looking over at the stack of newspapers setting on her dresser. Five months of articles exposing every ugly detail of her life. Having read every one of them dozens of times, there was no need for her to retrieve them because they were now emblazoned in her mind. Against everyone’s advice, she had ordered copies of all the back issues published while she was in jail. To these, she had added all the current newspapers with articles about how the prosecutor in her case was now being taken before a peer review board for his unethical behavior during her murder trial.

  The articles chronicled every foolish decision she had ever made in her life and they beckoned her back into the shadowy world of what if. What if she had done this instead of that? What if the prison had warned her they were releasing her father as the courts had ordered them to do? What if she had taken that weekend trip Gladys had talked about? What if her daughter, Hope, had not chosen that night to come looking for her birth mother? What if?

  Lisa turned away from the dresser, refusing to take the long journey down the path of what if again. Pleading with God to help her control her destructive thoughts, she prayed, “Lord, You know I spent years wishing I had never been born and blaming You for all of it. But now, at forty years of age, there are parts of my life I would never change—even if I could. Since I don’t get to pick and choose which parts I would keep and which parts I would erase, I have to learn how to incorporate all of these segments of my life into one, now that it is safe to do so.

  “God, I really am thankful my murder trial forced me to face it all. Ashamed of so much of my life, I felt the only way to survive was to lock away my secrets and just live in the present. I always looked at my life as three separate and distinct parts; my brutal childhood, my foolish and destructive youth, and finally my wonderful redemption. Even though I knew You had forgiven me, I was afraid to tell anyone about my baby girl. I had given her away and wanted to leave her in my past. I saw no reason to tell anyone about her since she was gone forever.

  “I thought I was content to live the rest of my life with this one secret. After all, she was living that wonderful life I always wanted for her. I convinced myself that there was no reason to tell my sister or Gladys about my little girl after all these years, so I tucked her existence deep in my heart and grieved her loss alone.

  “Lord, I don’t know if I will ever have a chance to explain everything to my daughter, but I want to be honest with her and confess who I was and who I have become. I want her to understand that You are the reason I am now who I am. I never wanted her contaminated by me or my family. You know I was too much like my mother back then to be trusted with a child so I gave her up for adoption twenty-two years ago to give her a better life than I had. But then that night everything changed in an instant. She came looking for me. I don’t know how she found me, but she came walking into the bakery that night wanting some answers from her birth mother.”

  Suddenly, the memory of her grown daughter’s face, standing at the bakery counter that night, trying to summon enough courage to admit why she was in the bakery, filled Lisa’s heart with pride—she was a lovely young woman. Hope didn’t have to say a word. One look at her and Lisa knew who she was and why she was there. “God, I was blindsided that night. Hope came walking into the bakery wanting answers. Even though You saved me almost twelve years earlier and I had not used any drugs or sold my body since, I was not prepared to explain any of this to my daughter. But just as I started to tell her everything, my father burst into the bakery kitchen, determined to kill me. If it had not been for Hope, he would have succeeded this time.”

  A shudder ran down Lisa’s spine as she remembered the look of terror in her daughter’s eyes. “God, I am thankful I did not die, but I wish Hope hadn’t been the one to save me. The fact that she took a life – even though she had no choice, is a burden no one should have to carry.

  “I really messed everything up, didn’t I? I panicked and reverted back to my old life method of dealing with stressful emergencies; I ran. Actually, I did something even more foolish, didn’t I? I talked my daughter into running. In my panic, I didn’t even think to ask for Your help, God. I just didn’t want her life ruined. I wanted her to get out of the bakery, out of this town, and out of my life so she could be safe again. At the moment it seemed so rational to me. But God, You and I both know that when it comes to my family my rationale has never been very rational, has it?”

  Overwhelmed with all this emotion, Lisa sat up in her bed and remembered the admonition Gladys gave her earlier that evening, “Lisa, holding on to all these newspaper articles is like drinking a little poison every day. Every time you reread these articles you allow them to drag you back into a black hole of despair. You need to toss them out, Lisa. Holding on to them is holding on to the pain as well.”

  Lisa put on her robe and slippers, picked up the huge stack of newspapers and headed for the trash cans at the curb. Resting the stack of papers against her right hip, Lisa quietly lifted the lid with her left hand and allowed the newspapers to slide out of her possession. A strange relief came over her as she stared down into the trash can. Gladys had warned her that reliving the ugly past made focusing on the future impossible. “Lord, is Hope ever going to give me a second chance? I foolishly talked her int
o leaving the scene of a murder. I thought I could take all the blame and keep her out of it. But once Hope found out I was on trial for murder, she risked everything, came forward and testified at my trial. Even though it was self-defense, it was my idea for her to run. Because of me, my daughter is all tangled up in Prosecutor Gordon’s legal troubles because he found out about her halfway through my trial and threatened her if she dared come forward. God, I couldn’t have made a bigger mess of things if I’d tried. I thought my days of drama were over, but here I am again, asking You to fix me and help my daughter.”

  Startled by a car turning the corner, Lisa quickly replaced the trash can lid and made her way back to her bedroom. Not able to sleep, she thought about jumping in the shower but noticed the clock blinking 3:35 a.m. and reluctantly slipped back into bed. Just because sleep was eluding her, she had no right to disturb Gladys’s sweet slumber. This was going to be a long night.

  After two more hours of tossing and turning, the familiar click of her clock radio signaled it was finally 5:30 a.m. and her workday was about to begin. She quickly reached over and turned off the alarm before it had a chance to ring. Usually, before the alarm could begin to ring, she would be on her feet, heading for the shower, eager to start her day, but ever since that night in the bakery, her usual routine had been anything but usual. Studying the blinking clock, Lisa mused to herself, “I have waited months for this day to arrive, but now that it is here, I’m not sure I am ready for it. Will I ever feel comfortable in my old routine again? For the past eleven years my life has been Bascom’s Bakery. For the past eight years I have been responsible for opening up the bakery, firing up the ovens, and getting the pastry dough prepped and chilled for a long morning of doing what I do best, baking goodies for everyone in town at Ruth Bascom’s bakery.

  “I always looked forward to the three hours of solitude in my beloved kitchen before the bakery helpers started pouring in with chitchat and gossip. I seldom joined in the gossip fests with the young girls who worked with me in the kitchen. I was almost twice their age, and I knew what it felt like to be the brunt of gossip in a small, southern town.”