After cancer took my husband, I was left with crushing debt, a little daughter, and the terrifying possibility of homelessness.
Marriage
Desperate to protect my child, I accepted a housekeeping job for a wealthy 72-year-old man named Richard.
I never imagined that, years later, I would marry him.
And I certainly never expected his lawyer to tell me that Richard had planned everything from the beginning.
My entire childhood had been a series of temporary homes.
I grew up in foster care, moving from one family to another.
At one shelter, someone once looked at me and said,
“You’re like a stray kitten.”
I never forgot those words.
Then, at one of those shelters, I met Tom.
He was kind, cheerful, and somehow always smiling despite everything he’d been through.
The shelter workers adored him.
Maybe we recognized something in each other—the feeling of being unwanted.
We stayed in
