Prologue
Frozen rain pelted down on Juliet Madison, adding the last finishing touch to her perfect day. She’d been walking down Fifty-Fourth Street without her umbrella when the sky opened up. She’d run from the house so hastily, the weather had been the furthest thing from her mind.
Her loud gasps reverberated through her mind. How could her sister… her husband… how could they… hurt her so badly? She should have called, but after she’d been gone for a week, she just wanted to surprise Hank. She never thought that she’d be the one in for such a great and unwanted surprise.
Less than a block away, Juliet found herself sitting on the icy cement. Racking sobs shook her small shoulders. She looked down at herself, tears had crystallized on her lashes, they felt thick and heavy, and as she blinked they fell splashing onto her jeans. She watched as crystals spidered across her knee. With a gasping sob, she rose from the sidewalk and made her way into the bar across the street.
A film of slim seemed to settle on everything in sight. Her three hundred dollar shoes carried her across the dirty floor. Standing before a dusty bar stool, she slipped her soaked jacket off and laid it neatly over the torn vinyl stool. Absentmindedly fixing her hair make-up and trying her best to remain unseen, she didn’t even realize the bar tender had spoken to her, until she realized he was yelling, “Can I help you, miss?”
“Oh,” she whispered, embarrassed. “I’d like a cosmopolitan, please.”
He gave her a weird look, but then busied himself behind the bar.
“Here you go,” he said slamming the pink drink down on the bar.
“Thank you.”
As she took a drink memories flooded through her mind: Her wedding day, the dreams she and Hank had shared, and the vision of her sister and husband rolling around on her bed. The bed she and Hank had spent hours picking out that Saturday five years ago. Hot tears rushed from her eyes.
“You all right Ma’am?”
